Egor Orudzhev produced a superb performance in the second encounter of the Lamborghini World Finals, winning the Pro/ProAm race in front of a fired-up Bonduel to secure an unexpected world title.
The ART-Line team driver first tried to beat his French rival on the track, then had to serve a drive-through due to a penalty for a jump start. His victory was in the balance until the very end due to another investigation, but thanks to this win and the fastest lap obtained in Race 2 he was able to outsmart Race 1 winner Hampus Eriksson to take the 2024 title, despite totalling the same number of points.
Brendon Leitch and Anthony McIntosh instead clinched an undisputed title, dominating the ProAM class from start to finish. Their performance crowned an impeccable weekend for the USA-New Zealand pairing, which gave them a clear-cut world championship win.
At the start of the second race, Bonduel wanted at all costs to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s elimination and powered away from pole on a track made treacherous by the rain that fell on Jerez de la Frontera from the early afternoon. Right behind him Egor Orudzhev (Art-Line) immediately looked threatening, and then came Eriksson.
At turn 9, during the opening lap, Paul Levet and Jerzy Spinkiewicz made contact, both ending up off track. This forced the Race Direction to send the Safety Car out to allow the marshals to remove the two crashed Huracans.
The race restarted on lap 4, with Bonduel ahead of Orudzhev and the Swedish pair of Eriksson and Oliver Söderström, both from the Target Racing team. For Orudzhev, however, things were starting to look difficult when the race stewards gave him a drive-through penalty for a jump start.
On lap 6 Giano Taurino ended up off at turn 6, while a few moments later, Orudzhev returned to the pits to serve the penalty caused by a jump start and Race Direction imposed the Full Course Yellow regime.
On lap 9 the race restarted, with Bonduel leading by 6.6s over Eriksson and 7.2s over Orudzhev. Meanwhile, in the ProAm class, Milos Pavlovic took the lead ahead of Brendon Leitch and John Dubets.
At the end of the round of pit stops, Orudzhev found himself the leader of the race, as Bonduel – racing alone – had to serve added time to remain stationary in the pit lane. Behind them were Loris Cabirou (ANSA Motorsport) and Eriksson, fourth.
As for ProAM, Anthony McIntosh took over the car from Brendon Leitch and returned to the track ahead of Nathan Stacy and Guido Luchetti.
Orudzhev was able to control Bonduel’s comeback and, having set the fastest lap in Race 2, he won the title despite having totalled the same 23 points as Eriksson.
