Postiglione/Galbiati score Lamborghini Super Trofeo Nurburgring double
Imperiale Racing duo Vito Postiglione and Kikki Galbiati closed to within just five points of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo points lead following a pair of dominant victories at the Nurburgring
The Bonaldi Motorsport crew of Danny Kroes and Sergei Afanasiev continue to lead the championship ahead of the final two rounds at Jerez next month, but with a significantly reduced margin following a brace of third place finishes.
Kroes started Saturday's opening race from pole and led the sister Bonaldi car of Jack Bartholomew into the first corner.
Galbiati then got the better of Bartholomew and began closing in on Kroes approaching the mandatory driver-change pitstops.
A quicker stop from the Imperiale Racing crew allowed Postiglione - who had taken over from Galbiati - to emerge in the lead as Kroes handed over command of the #3 Bonaldi Huracan to Afanasiev.
From then on, Postiglione gradually extended his advantage at the front, setting successive fastest laps to ease to a 14.525 second win.
Alberto di Folco and Davide Venditti claimed the final step on the podium in third after a thrilling three-way battle with Afanasiev and Bartholomew's team-mate Stuart Middleton.
Former British GT4 driver Middleton had held onto third following the pitstops and seemed to have the measure of Di Folco and the Leipert Motorsport car of Anthony Lambert behind before he spun through the fast Schumacher Chicane.
Middleton did a full 360-degree spin but only dropped two places before finding his way back past Lambert on the final lap to finish fourth.
Harald Schlegelmilch took an easy Pro-Am victory with sixth overall in the ArtLine Team Georgia entry, driving without co-driver Shota Abkhazava for the opening encounter.
Schlegelmilch started from the back of the grid following qualifying issues and also received a jumped-start drivethrough penalty early-on.
In Sunday's second race, Postiglione got a perfect getaway from the rolling start, beating Middleton and Afanasiev into Turn 1, as further back Jose Collado tipped his fellow Am class runner Steven Liquorish into a spin.
This brought out the safety car for a solitary lap, with Postiglione able to build a comfortable three seconds margin over Middleton ahead of the stops.
Middleton managed to close the gap to Postiglione to just under two seconds by the time he made his stop, but the latter maintained a slender margin, which Galbiati would subsequently ease out to 5.707s by the flag after the stops.
Behind the leading duo, Afanasiev broke clear of a raging battle between Di Folco and Schlegelmilch - who was joined by Abkhazava - for fourth.
Di Folco leapfrogged Afanasiev following a slower stop for the #3 car, but Kroes was able to retake third.
Galbiati was untroubled en route to his and Postiglione's fourth win of the season - and second double after Misano - to move the pairing closer to Kroes and Afanasiev in the standings.
The battle for supremacy in the Am class was a weekend-long battle between AGS Events' Nico Gomar and Gilles Vannelet, and the GT3 Poland entry of Robert Zwinger.
Zwinger came out on top in the first race after the polesitting Leipert Motorsport car of Mikko Eskelinen and Jake Rattenbury lost ground after the pit stops.
Gomar led the second race early-on and kept ahead after the stops, with Zwinger eventually falling 16s behind by the end.
Nurburgring Blancpain: Caldarelli/Mapelli head Lamborghini one-two
Nurburgring Blancpain GT: WRT Audis' clash hands Aston Martin win
Bathurst 12 Hour: Van Gisbergen Mercedes leads after first quarter
Shane van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Mercedes headed Matt Campbell’s Manthey Porsche after three hours of racing at Mount Panorama in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Tanak scores first Puma win in preparation for WRC Rally Sweden
Ott Tanak claimed his first victory driving an M-Sport Ford Puma after winning the Otepaa Winter Rally in preparation for next week’s World Rally Championship round in Sweden.
Ranking the worst Formula 1 cars to win a grand prix
Cars that rarely looked like contenders for victory have occasionally slipped through the net to become winners of world championship Formula 1 races. But which was the worst of the bunch?
Schumacher radio criticism highlighted F1 privacy change for Russell
George Russell says that the way an off-the-cuff radio remark criticising Mick Schumacher last year became a big deal shows how he is more under the spotlight in Formula 1.
The F1 technology behind Mercedes’ Nordschleife record hypercar
It’s taken over half a decade of development but now the Mercedes-AMG One is here – boasting 1048bhp from a Formula 1-based hybrid powertrain and smashing the Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record for a production car with Maro Engel at the wheel last month. ROBERT HOLMES wonders if it can now claim to be the ultimate hypercar...
How to get the best out of amateur racers
Pro-Am GT racing is booming. But how should drivers approach working with an amateur? Autosport sought out a panel of experts to explain the pitfalls amateur drivers should avoid and how professionals can help them to achieve their goals
The remarkable career of a 'classy' champion who rejected politics
Over two decades as a factory driver with Audi and BMW, Martin Tomczyk earned the respect of team-mates and rivals as a hard but fair racer. After calling time on his racing career, the 2011 DTM champion sat down with Autosport to look back
The ex-IndyCar racer in "uncharted territory" of British GT team ownership
This weekend’s British GT finale will be a tense title showdown for some but, for those not in the championship fight, it’s a chance to end a challenging year on a high. In the latter camp is Paddock Motorsport's team owner Martin Plowman, whose 2021 season has been a rollercoaster ride of non-stop learning
The unpopular BMW stalwart built for the big occasion
It has won most of the big prizes in endurance racing across its six years in service, but the BMW M6 GT3's key weaknesses meant only a devoted few teams persisted with running it. As it prepares to bow out at season's end, the teams and drivers involved in its story share the secrets of an unpopular winner
The unwanted GT car that changed sportscar racing forever
Had FIA GT boss Stephane Ratel had his way, the Maserati MC12 would never have been allowed to set foot in his series. It duly proved the class of the field that most had expected, but the Balance of Performance that its superiority spawned would keep GT1 battles tight and bring long-term benefits that sportscar racing enjoys today
Why Britain's greatest sportscar was eclipsed on the world stage
The E-Type may be the most famous of all road-going Jaguars, but that didn't always translate into success on the track. After winning on its competition debut in 1961, motorsport success seemed an inevitability, but things didn’t turn out to be quite that straightforward
Why the Jaguar E-type remains special at 60
It’s 60 years since the Jaguar E-type arrived and caused a sensation. As our resident racer Ben Anderson discovered when he got behind the wheel of two special racing versions at Brands Hatch, the thrill of driving them hasn't diminished over time
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.