Paul Ricard Readies for Super Trofeo’s Record-Equaling Mid-Season Showdown
Forty-seven identical Huracáns, four professional crews separated by eight points, and a circuit whose long straights and technical chicanes punish every small mistake: the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe arrives at Paul Ricard in Le Castellet for the third of six double rounds in 2016 at the precise moment when the championship could tip in any direction.
That 47-car entry equals the grid from the season opener at Monza, a number that by itself tells you how deep the competitive pool runs. Because every car on track is a Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo, the engineering argument collapses to its essentials: identical hardware means results come from driver talent, team preparation, and race-day strategy. Three different drivers have already won PRO-class races from four starts. That kind of parity does not happen by accident, and Paul Ricard is where it will either tighten further or finally crack.
The weekend shares billing with the 1000 Km race of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, filling the paddock with GT3 machinery and factory-supported teams. For Squadra Corse, staging its own series alongside that caliber of endurance racing is a deliberate statement about where Lamborghini’s motorsport ambitions sit.
The PRO Class: A Four-Way Fight Separated by a Single Bad Restart
The PRO standings read like a thriller plotted by someone who understands pacing. Vito Postiglione of Imperiale Racing holds the lead after taking his first win of the season in the second race at Silverstone. Three points behind him, Dennis Lind of Raton Racing, just 23 years old, already owns two victories: one at Monza and one more at Silverstone. The gap between them could evaporate with a single poor qualifying lap.
Tied for third are the Orange 1 Team Lazarus pairing of Nicola De Marco and Fabrizio Del Monte, who won Race 2 at their home round, and 19-year-old Martin Kodric of Bonaldi Motorsport. Three different winners from four races, spread across four different teams. When a spec car produces that spread of results, it reflects a machine whose performance envelope rewards precision rather than brute setup advantages.
The entry list carries further names worth watching. Loris Spinelli, the 2015 PRO-AM champion, steps up alongside teammate Enrico Fulgenzi at Antonelli Motorsport after a second-place finish at Silverstone. Estonian Harald Schlegelmilch of Artline Team Georgia already has a pole position to his name. Former Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini, racing with Petri Corse, continues to score points consistently. That depth of talent in a single-marque series tells you something about how seriously teams and drivers treat the Huracán as a competitive platform, and it is exactly this depth that makes Paul Ricard’s mid-season round feel decisive rather than routine.
PRO-AM and Lamborghini Cup: Dominance, Youth, and a Two-Point Title Race
If the PRO class is a four-way knife fight, the PRO-AM class looks, on paper, like a procession. Adrian Amstutz and Patrick Kujala of Bonaldi Motorsport have won three of four races and hold an 11-point advantage over the Konrad Motorsport duo of Nicolas Armindo and Henry Hassid. A clean sweep at Paul Ricard would give them breathing room nearly impossible to claw back in the second half of the season.
The more compelling subplot involves 17-year-old Rik Breukers. The Dutchman, racing for GDL Racing, collected three victories, including a double win at Silverstone, before being moved up to the PRO-AM class. Promoting a teenager mid-season because he is too fast for his current category is exactly the kind of driver development story that justifies a manufacturer investing in a one-make series. GDL Racing will also field a third car at Paul Ricard for Singaporean driver Lim Keong Wee, alongside Bashar Mardini and Breukers himself.
The Lamborghini Cup, designed for gentleman drivers, delivers its own tension and reinforces the same theme running through every class: genuine competition, not expensive parade laps. Tim Richards of M-Tech leads with two wins but holds only a two-point advantage over Gerard Van der Horst of Van der Horst Motorsport. From the PRO class down to the gentleman-driver ranks, the pattern repeats: tight points, multiple winners, and a mid-season picture that could look completely different by Sunday evening.
The Huracán Super Trofeo: A Purebred Racing Machine Enabling Close Competition
A 47-car grid of identical Huracáns matters beyond the paddock because it functions as a rolling stress test for Lamborghini’s engineering. Every Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo on that grid runs the same naturally aspirated V10, the same sequential gearbox, the same aerodynamic package. If the car had reliability weak points or an unpredictable chassis balance, 47 teams running flat out for 50-minute races would expose them mercilessly. The fact that the series produces close racing, with multiple winners and tight points battles across every class, is itself a form of engineering proof.
The series also functions as a talent pipeline. The progression from Lamborghini Cup to PRO-AM to PRO mirrors the ladder systems other manufacturers use, but Lamborghini’s version feeds directly into Squadra Corse’s broader GT3 ambitions. According to Autoblog, the Temerario GT3 represents Lamborghini’s first competition car fully designed, developed, and built in-house. The drivers cutting their teeth in Super Trofeo today are the ones Lamborghini will look to when it needs experienced hands for that next chapter. Breukers is 17. Kodric is 19. Lind is 23. The pipeline is already producing.
Paul Ricard Schedule and How to Watch
The weekend opens with two one-hour free practice sessions on Friday. Two 15-minute qualifying sessions follow, with pit lane opening at 9:00 a.m. local time. Race 1 goes green on Saturday at 14:30, with Race 2 scheduled for Sunday at 12:05.
Both races will be broadcast live in Italy on Nuvolari TV (channel 61, digital terrestrial). For everyone else, Lamborghini Squadra Corse offers live streaming through its official website, and replays appear on Lamborghini’s YouTube channel.
The practical takeaway for anyone tracking the championship from a distance is simple: if Postiglione or Lind stumbles at Paul Ricard, the PRO title race could look completely different by Sunday afternoon. With four crews within striking distance and the series at its exact midpoint, this is the round where contenders separate themselves from the field.
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