Porsche Cup: New people on the podium
GUEST DRIVERS Ahead The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Suisse got off to a remarkably international start to the season: Both races at the Red Bull Ring ended with drivers from four nations in the top four places. Race 1 was the clear prey of Mikkel Pedersen. The young Dane, who normally races in the Supercup, secured the title by almost a second [...]
Race 1 was the clear prey of Mikkel Pedersen. The young Dane, who normally races in the Supercup, secured pole position with a lead of almost a second and then drove to an unchallenged start-finish victory. Thailand's Kusiri Kantadhee drove to second place in similarly commanding fashion.
Two full points for Texeira
Behind them, the action was much livelier. The 19-year-old Antonio Teixeira - promoted to the top league in the Cayman GT4 Clubsport class after only four rounds - fought his way up from eighth to fourth position behind veteran Jean-Paul von Burg with a lightning start as early as the first lap. In the tenth round, the Portuguese, who lives in Switzerland, then moved up to third place. Defending champion Ernst Keller was only eleventh.
As the second race went over without Mikkel Pedersen, Kantadhee moved up to the best starting position, but returned behind Teixeira from the first lap. In the fifth round, the Thai, driving with a Japanese license, corrected this flaw and pulled away by almost five seconds to the finish.
Third place behind Teixeira, who again scored full points thanks to the non-inclusion of guest starters, went to Jean-Paul von Burg ahead of Josef Stengel. Dominik Fischli was unlucky: starting in fourth place, he was in third for a long time but had to abandon the race shortly before the end.
Successful switch from two to four wheels
The Cayman class was also dominated by a newcomer: at the wheel of his 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, motorcycle specialist Linus Diener secured both victories from pole position. After the start, he had to give way to Amedeo Pampanini, but on the eighth of 16 laps he turned the tables again, regained the lead and won by just under 2.5 seconds. Pampanini finished second ahead of Marcel Wagner, Marcel Zimmermann and Emmanuel Bello.
Behind Diener, Amedeo Pampanini was beaten in the second race by Marcel Wagner's Porsche. Laurent Misbach put in a great performance, including the fastest race lap, to move up from eighth on the grid to fourth. Marcel Zimmermann and Paul Surand rounded off the top 6.
Perfect conditions
In the Porsche Driver's Challenge Suisse, a returnee stood at the top of the podium in the end: Massimo Salamanca completed the evenness competition with the most consistent lap times.
A total of 74 participants took to the track in perfect weather conditions in Styria. The second of a total of six race weekends for the GT3 CC and PSCS will take place from June 6 to 8 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet in the south of France.
