Italian race team Petri Corse secured three victories at the inaugural race weekend of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo series at Adria International Raceway, Italy, on 16 May 2009. Fifteen Super Trofeo race cars took to the track to contest in the world’s fastest one-make series.
Qualifying
Friday’s 30-minute qualifying session saw Fabio Babini and Claudio Rossetto secure pole position for the first race of the season with a fastest lap of 1:16.621. Alongside them on the front row of the grid was Bonaldi Racing’s Gianluigi Piccioli and Davide Amaduzzi, having qualified with a time of 1:16.768. Lamborghini München Team Holzer completed the top three with drivers Uwe Alzen and Achim Winter, who set a fastest lap of 1:17.075 in the closing minutes of the session.
Round One
Team Automobili Lamborghini’s Giorgio Sanna passed Babini and Rossetto’s car for the lead on the second lap, creating a gap from the pursuing drivers. Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Lamborghini Racing Eastern Europe had a strong start to move him up to third from 12th on the grid.
After the driver change, Babini passed von Thurn und Taxis’ team-mate Jarek Janis for second place before closing the gap between himself and leader Sanna. On the penultimate lap, Sanna fell back to fourth place. Babini passed Sanna for the win, Lamborghini Racing Eastern Europe’s Erik Janis and Michael Scheublein claimed second place, with Jerek Janis and von Thurn und Taxis completing the top three.
Round Two
Having won the first race, Babini started from pole for Round Two, creating a good lead in the first stint and allowing his team-mate Rossetto to focus on consistency and maintain their position in the second half of the race.
Autovitesse’s Alexander Frei and Jonathan Cochet claimed second place, having started seventh, whilst Peter Kox and team-mate Marc A. Hayek finished third.
Round Three
Babini and Rossetto completed their weekend with a third victory, despite several lead changes during the course of the 35-minute race. A late safety car period, deployed for Lechner Racing’s spinning Maximillian Werndel, brought together the field, allowing Babini to climb from third place to the lead.
Erik Janis and Michael Schaublein crossed the finish line in second place, with von Thurn und Taxis and Jerek Janis completing the top three.
“It has been a really fantastic weekend for us,” said Babini. “We have a great set-up and the car is very quick. The safety car restart in Round Three was very exciting; any of the top four drivers could have won. I know the track well, so I had an advantage at the start of the day, but all the other drivers have got faster very quickly, so it was a very exciting weekend!”
Team-mate Claudio Rossetto said, “This is my first race for a few years, so am very pleased with the result. The team did a fantastic job to put us in such a good position throughout the weekend.”
The next Super Trofeo race weekend takes place at Norisring, Germany, on 26-28 June 2009, supporting Europe’s most popular touring car series, DTM.
