10 October 2022
Wells and Lee show pace but lack luck in Barcelona
10 October 2022 – Dan Wells and Oscar Lee continued their Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season with a 4th and 9th in the competitive Pro-Am class at the famous F1 venue.
Free practice 1 was affected by numerous red flags as 44 drivers tried to familiarise themselves with the twists and turns of the Spanish circuit. FP2 saw slightly better driving standards, and Lee completed most of the running to familiarize himself with the technical Formula One circuit.
Qualifying took place early on Saturday morning, and Oscar took the duties as the first qualifying driver. The 20-minute session saw Oscar post a lap time good enough for P13 overall, and 7th in class - a great job by the Taiwanese-American driver. Wells was set for a strong qualifying, but catching traffic on his two best laps didn’t help and he finished the session 7th and 3rd in class - just a mere tenth and a half from being 3rd overall. The duo quickly put this disappointment behind them, and focused on race one on Saturday afternoon.
Oscar started well from the right side of the grid, immediately overtaking a professional driver through turn 3 on the opening lap. 2 laps later and the pro punted Oscar into a spin at turn 5 which saw him drop to the back of the field. Oscar quickly made a determined charge through the field before handing over the Prosperity Investment Management-backed car to Dan. Dan immediately made moves forwards but numerous safety cars meant there was only a few laps of possible racing, but the British driver managed to climb to 4th in class in the final corner even with rear suspension damage from another competitor.
The Sunday morning race would be a similar story - Wells managed a good start to overtake pro runner Max Weering but the safety car once again neutralised the race. Dan stayed out for his full stint, and brought the car in with the overall lead as others had already made their stop. Oscar exited the pits P1 in class, but a troublesome outlap saw him drop to 3rd. Once again there was more safety cars, but the duo were set to come home in 4th in class until a pro driver hit Oscar into the wall just two corners from home - which saw them classifed as 9th in class.
Wells commented, “This hasn’t been quite the weekend we wanted in terms of results, but the team have been great all weekend and Oscar did a great job to make his best practice and qualifying performances to date. It’s all to play for as we go into Portimao for the final round, especially with the World Final on the back of it, so our focus turns to making sure we end the year on a high.”
Wells and Lee now lie 2nd in the Championship and will head into the final round on November 4-5 at the Algarve Circuit in Portimao.
