Despite crossing the line second, Marco Giltrap and Chris van der Drift have been awarded the win in the first of two Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia races at The Bend.
Solo TRT Racing driver Jonathan Cecotto was the first car home, however a 30-second penalty post-race dropped him down the order and elevated the all-Kiwi Lamborghini Auckland entry to top spot.
Cecotto looked a force all day, pulling away off pole and pulling a gap over the field in the early stages.
Having qualified the car third, van der Drift put in a tidy first stint as the lead four pulled well clear heading into the mid-race pit stops and driver changes.
Giltrap emerged from the lane in second, only behind Cecotto, right as a Safety Car was called for to allow marshals to remove stranded car from the sand.
Cecotto pulled away again off the restart, with Giltrap also putting a gap over third place. The gap between the two grew slightly heading into the closing stages, when an incident in the pack resulted in another stranding and Safety Car.
The race finished under yellow flag conditions, with Cecotto taking the victory over Giltrap and the Changwoo Lee/John Kwon Am entry.
Cecotto was sensationally stripped of his win only after having celebrated on the podium, elevating Giltrap and van der Drift to first, Lee and Kwon to second and Oscar Lee and Dan Wells to third.
Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia returns for one further race at The Bend tomorrow, with Giltrap having also qualified third.
The race begins at 1.55 pm and will be shown live on the Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube.
Header Image: Lamborghini Squadra Corse
