Porsche Cup: Alexander Fach has to wait
GT3 TITLE NEAR AT HAND Alexander Fach was the fastest GT3 driver in the Porsche Cup Suisse at Mugello. However, a time penalty cost him the early title win. The championship is still open in the other classes as well. With pole position, start-finish victory and fastest race lap in the sprint race at Mugello, Alexander Fach underlined his ambitions for [...]
With pole position, start-finish victory and fastest race lap in the sprint race at Mugello, Alexander Fach underlined his ambitions for the 2021 Swiss GT3 Cup title on the fifth race weekend of the year.
Yellow phase slows down chaser
Fach's lead of 0.426 seconds over his main rival Dominik Fischli - both of whom are sponsored as young drivers by the Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG - was mainly due to a late safety car phase.
This meant that Fischli's chances of a direct hit were gone after he had fought his way past Gregor Burkard from fourth on the grid and then Sébastien Pidoux, who had crashed late on. While Burkard took third place, fourth position went to Peter Hegglin ahead of Alexander Schwarzer and Luca Pastorelli in a 911 GT3 Cup based on the new 992 model generation.
Puncture thwarts double victory and championship
Things also seemed to be going according to plan for the defending champion in the one-hour endurance race. Once again, Fach led the field from start to finish.
However, a two-minute penalty awaited him there because he had taken a shortcut into the pit lane without permission after a tire problem. As a result, the 19-year-old from Schwyz dropped back to 9th place and Dominik Fischli moved up to first position.
Peter Hegglin would have been second, but he got six seconds added because he had fallen short of the minimum standing time at the pit stop. Alexander Schwarzer and Gregor Burkard benefited from this and in the end climbed the podium alongside Fischli.
Alexander Fach: "The Mugello weekend was characterized by ups and downs for me. Actually, I already wanted to secure the title at Mugello, but now I'll just focus fully on Misano and give everything to clinch the championship there."
Winner in the old GT2
The duo of Jörg Dreisow and Manuel Lauck at the wheel of a 911 GT3 R emerged as the overall winners of the 100-mile competition.
The sprint in the GT Open class was won by Jürg Aeberhard in a 911 GT2 of the 993 model generation, which he last drove in 2012 and his father Kurt before him for many years. The Bernese had bravely fought off two modern 991 GT3 R cars and the pack of modified 991 GT3 Cup cars.
Laurent Misbach sets his sights on GT4 title
In the Class 10 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport with MR package, Laurent Misbach (gallery left) celebrated his third consecutive victory in a sprint race and fifth of the current season. His title rival Alexandre Mottet initially took the lead, but Misbach straightened things out on lap 4 and extended his lead to three seconds.
Mottet also had to give way at short notice to guest entrant Paolo Gnemmi (center gallery ahead of Alexandre Mottet), who in turn decided the battle for 3rd place with Thomas Herbst in his favor. In the endurance race, Gnemmi handed over his Cayman GT4 MR early on to professional driver Riccardo Pera, who subsequently drove from 4th place in Class 10 successively to the top.
In the end, the duo won by one lap ahead of Thomas Herbst, championship leader Laurent Misbach and Alexandre Mottet.
Two class wins for Philipp Hagnauer
In the 718 Cayman GT4 class without MR package, Philipp Hagnauer (right gallery) was the man of the day. The Basler drove out a clear start-finish victory in the sprint ahead of Thomas Brauch and Patrick Schetty.
In the Endurance race, Andreas Greiling and Jens Richter captured the best starting position but fell back in the early stages. Hagi" then took command, but Fabio Resico/Philipp Frommenwiler and Patrick Schetty remained in contact. At the finish, less than five seconds separated their three mid-engine sports cars.
Master of regularity
Nicolas Garski remained unbeaten in the Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse. At Mugello, he once again impressed with enormous precision. In nine timed laps he recorded a total deviation of just 99 hundredths from his own average time.
Defending champion Peter Gafner, also driving a Porsche 911 GT3, was second with a 2.14-second variation. The other places went to Tommy Eriksson, Peter Meister and Robert Schwaller.
All title decisions will be made on November 6 at the finale in Misano.
