Porsche Cup Mugello: From rookie to double winner 🎥

Alexander Schwarzer crowned his training as a racing driver with two first places in the GT3 Cup. At Mugello, the Porsche Racing Experience graduate (gallery on the left) first won the 13-lap sprint race before also winning Class 1 in the endurance race over the 100-mile distance. In both competitions, the German underlined his talent at the wheel of the around 510-hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of the current 992 generation (center gallery), which is used in this class without electronic driving aids, with the fastest race lap in each case.

Difficult start phase for the pole setter

Johannes Kapfinger, support driver of the Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG, had started the sprint from pole position (gallery on the right). However, after several extraneous contacts, the Passau native only returned from the first lap in fourth place. He passed Peter Hegglin again in the third lap, and on lap 8 he was also able to pass the Italian William Mezzetti and take up the chase for Schwarzer. At the finish, however, the title favorite was 3.2 seconds behind the winner. Mezzetti finished third ahead of Gregor Burkard and Marc Arn.

Title decision postponed

Kapfinger left his class pole for the one-hour Endurance race unused: After a routine brake replacement, it was no longer possible to build up brake pressure, so the leader of the standings did not start the race. He was replaced by Alexander Schwarzer, who was able to maintain the lead in the class over the entire race distance and finished in fourth place overall. Gregor Burkard came as close as 3.2 seconds to him in the final meters. William Mezzetti, Peter Hegglin, Marc Arn and Christof Langer finished in the other positions. The title will now be decided on October 29 in Misano.

The twin brother can do it too

Michael Kapfinger, Johannes' twin brother, won the Open GT group in the sprint race ahead of Dustin Blattner from the USA. Both drove a current 911 GT3 Cup with racing ABS. Together with Dieter Svepes, Kapfinger had to give way to his German compatriots Sebastian Schmitt and Dominik Schraml in the Endurance race.

Mottet and Schetty extend title fight

Alexandre Mottet versus Patrick Schetty - the title fight in Class 11 Group GT4 Clubsport went into the next round at Mugello. With their 425-hp Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport with Manthey package, the two rivals started the sprint race from positions 3 and 4. Already on the starting lap, they passed pole man Remo Stebler (lower gallery, left) and "Gioga". The leader of the standings, Mottet, was able to hold his ground against Schetty until the finish. Stebler still finished third ahead of Detlef Schmidt and Gilbert Denzer, while "Gioga" fell far behind after a problem.

In the Endurance race, Schetty (lower center gallery) finished fourth in class, while Mottet had to retire after the 18th lap. The duo of Antonio Garzon and Antoine Leclerc, who as guest entrants do not count towards the championship, were the winners. Second place and thus full points went to Remo Stebler ahead of Gilbert Denzer.

Two masters of precision

The man of the day in Porsche Drivers Competition at Mugello was Xavier Penalba. In his 991-generation 911 GT3 RS (lower gallery on the right), he had the smallest deviations from his own average lap time in the Classic classification in both the shorter and longer regularity competitions. Penalba relegated Jens Puhlfürst and Marius Hutmacher to the other places in the first heat over five laps. For the second, eight of the nine laps driven were considered. Here Penalba was able to beat Kevin Lattion, Manfred Cathomas and Tommy Eriksson. In the Chrono classification, which allows electronic aids, Nicolas Garski won twice ahead of Fide Scheer.

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