New Zealand’s Brendon Leitch and Australia’s Nicolas Stati have been crowned Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals champions at Monza in Italy.
The Leipert Racing duo capped off their part-time Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season with a win in Race 1 on Thursday and second place in Race 2 on Friday, laying the foundation for their World Finals title tilt.
They then lined up for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals on Saturday and Sunday where the best Super Trofeo teams and drivers from Europe, North America and Asia combined for a 36-car showdown.
Leitch began Race 1 on Saturday from second and maintained position before handing the reins to Stati, who brought the car home in the runner-up position.
Come Sunday, the pair surged from seventh on the grid to first with a mid-race strategic masterstroke.
The team elected to pit when the pit window opened to take Stati out of the car and install Leitch for the run home.
In clear air, Leitch undercut his rivals before making one more on-track pass to take the lead of the race and sail out to a six-second lead.
It’s the first Pro class win for Leitch in the Lamborghini World Finals, adding to his Pro-Am gong achieved with Anthony McIntosh in 2024 at Jerez, Spain.
Leitch and Stati will continue racing together this year in the Asian Le Mans Series in a Leipert Motorsport-prepared Lamborghini Temerario GT3.
“It’s quite a big relief actually, I wasn’t quite sure how much it was going to mean for me, but it is pretty awesome,” said Invercargill-born Leitch.
“I won the Pro-Am World Finals in 2024 and to come back and win the Pro title with Nicolas, who has still not done a full season of GT racing, I could not have for much more.
“It’s a really good preparation for us both ahead of the start of our Asian Le Mans Series campaign with the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Perth-born Stati made his GT racing debut this year and has quickly progressed alongside Leitch and Leipert Motorsport.
The Lamborghini World Finals win is the first major title in the 17-year-old’s fledgling career.
“This has been a goal of mine to win the World Finals and I want to give a big thanks to Brendon, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here racing this weekend, and to Leipert Motorsport who have done a fantastic job,” said Stati.
“The second race was all about keeping out of trouble because there were a few people trying to win the race on the first lap which never really goes well. We got out of the dirty air for a couple of laps and that got us closer to the front when Brendon got in the car.”
Despite the name, the Asian Le Mans Series will be held in Europe this season due to conflict and travel uncertainty in the Middle East, which prevented a return to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The series will begin with a visit to Paul Ricard in the south of France on November 14-15 before resuming in the new year on January 16-17 at Jerez. The season concludes at Portimao on February 20-21.
All three rounds feature two four-hour races headlined by the new Hypercar class alongside LMP2 and GT3.