Porsche Cup: Good autumn in spring
SUCCESSFUL CHANGE OF VEHICLE Thomas Herbst, who has switched to the Cayman GT4 top class, won the very first race in the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse in Austria. In the absence of defending champion Francesco Fenici, Thomas Herbst used his move up to the current Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR to showcase his talent in the separate field of the Porsche Sports Cup [...]
In the absence of defending champion Francesco Fenici, Thomas Herbst took advantage of his promotion to the current Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR to immediately demonstrate his talent in the separate field of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse at the Red Bull Ring.
In the fiercely contested qualifying session - the eleven fastest were separated by barely more than 0.8 seconds - Herbst set the best time in 1:36.744 minutes, took the lead of the first race from pole position and crossed the finish line as the winner with a commanding lead of almost six seconds.
A lot going on in the squares
Second place went to Alexandre Mottet, who had fought his way up from fifth position and was able to push Alessandro Fogliani into third place on the third-last lap. Philipp Hagnauer, who had finished a strong third in final practice with his 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, had to admit defeat to the faster MR models in the race. Nevertheless, 5th place and the class win are impressive.
Runner-up Laurent Misbach lost his second position on lap 3 and dropped back to 12th place, but was still able to celebrate his sixth place thanks to the fastest race lap. Sadamoto Takahashi probably received extra praise from his team boss: He fought his way up from 11th on the grid to fourth position.
Not an optimal second run
In the second sprint, Thomas Herbst was only able to enjoy his pole position for a short time. Already after the start, he briefly had to give way to Alexandre Mottet, but regained the lead with his around 425 hp GT4 sports car.
However, an incident in the fifth lap relegated him to eighth place. Even with the fastest race lap in 1:38.471 minutes, he could only work his way up to fourth position.
Double victory for "Hagi
Mottet was thus in front but had to keep an eye on the rearview mirror. From behind, Laurent Misbach approached with giant strides, briskly passing Hagnauer, Fogliani and Takahashi from 6th place on the grid. After 15 laps, he was just 0.585 seconds behind the winner Mottet.
Third place went to Takahashi ahead of Herbst, Fogliani and Hagnauer. "Hagi" thus once again won the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport class without MR package. Here, Thomas Brauch, Patrick Schetty and Renzo Kressig took the other positions.
Not the fastest, but the most regular
The Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse was won by Nicolas Garski. With his 911 GT3 of the 991 II model generation, he drove nine consistent laps, which in total deviated by only 1.53 seconds from his own average time of 1:48.21 minutes.
Garski thus beat reigning runner-up Robert Schwaller - who recorded a 2.25-second fluctuation - and champion Peter Gafner, who beat or undercut his reference time by 3.07 seconds.
A look at the personal fastest laps shows how different the strategies can be in this uniformity competition. While Robert Schwaller was extremely fast in 1:42.64 minutes, the winner Garski was a little more deliberate in 1:47.78 minutes, but also that decisive bit more consistent.
