Porsche Cup: Perfect Dijon trip for Jürg Aeberhard
INCREDIBLE Jürg Aeberhard is the big winner of the fourth race weekend of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse in Burgundy. With two sprint wins, the man from Bern took the sole lead in the standings in the premier GT3 class ahead of Porsche junior Jasin Ferati.
For Jürg Aeberhard, the GT3 Cup races on the 3.722-kilometer Circuit de Dijon-Prenois could hardly have gone better. In qualifying, he demonstrated his talent as a rain driver on a wet track and secured the best time by 0.741 seconds.
It does not get better than this
From pole position, the garage owner from Biglen went straight to the front of the 18-car field in the first race and drove home the win safely under pressure from Jasinm Ferati. The 19-year-old from Winterthur crossed the finish line just seven tenths behind.
The junior, who is sponsored by Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG, had overtaken Gregor Burkard in the third of 18 laps and then set the fastest race lap on a now dry track in 1:18.677 minutes.
In the end, Burkard took third place just ahead of Alexander Schwarzer. The Porsche Racing Experience graduate had only started eighth and crowned his race to catch up with fourth place ahead of Ernst Keller.
Ferati fights his way back
Aeberhard also won the second race. In the 17 laps to the finish, the 36-year-old veteran built up a lead of almost 15 seconds over Ferati. Aeberhard was the only driver to almost consistently set times of under 80 seconds in his 515 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of the 992 model generation.
Ferati had lost his second place on the grid to Burkard on the first lap, but regained this position on the seventh lap. Burkard then also had to let Ernst Keller go before the race was over for him on lap ten. As a result, Schwarzer moved up to fourth place.
Jürg Aeberhard: "My weekend went perfectly. The last time I drove a race car in the rain was in 2014 - so I was all the more pleased with the clear pole on a wet track. I also remained absolutely faultless in both races. I was able to deliver my laps and even had some reserves at the end."
Two GT4 wins for Mottet
Alexandre Mottet (left gallery) also managed a masterstroke in the GT4 group. As before in Franciacorta, he held his own with his 425-hp 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport against the nominally much faster 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.
Mottet laid the foundation for this in the first sprint with a lightning start that took him from third place into the lead. As a logical consequence, Mottet also celebrated victory in Class 10 for cars with the so-called Manthey Racing Package ahead of Markus Lietzau.
Jean-Paul Chaligne had won the qualifying session on a wet track. However, the pole setter dropped back to fifth place in the overall standings and still finished third.
In the second GT4 sprint, Mottet again secured victory, although he had to give way to Lietzau in between. Lietzau successfully defended his second class place against Chaligne in a battle group.
Two Swiss win through
In class 11 for 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport without MR package, Andreas Ritzi took the win ahead of Remo Stebler after a strong performance in the first race. In the second, the winner was Jens Richter ahead of Stebler.
Paolo Locatelli and Valerio Presezzi took the overall victory in both races in their new 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.
There were two Swiss double wins in the international Open GT field. With his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Loïc Villiger won the first race very narrowly ahead of Simon Willner. In the second sprint, Willner (gallery center in the lead) won by 1.5 seconds ahead of Philippe Menotti, both on a 911 GT3 R.
A master of constancy
Nicolas Garski continued his winning streak at the fourth race weekend of the Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse (PDC), but faced strong competition at Dijon-Prenois.
In the first race, Fide Scheer - also driving a Porsche 911 GT3 - copied the strategy of the defending champion and combined a relaxed pace on the track with high consistency. Result: Over seven scored laps, Scheer allowed himself only a 0.126-second deviation from his own average time. Garski, however, did even better, with the differences adding up to just 101 thousandths of a second.
The second run featured eleven timed laps, and this time Garski (Gallery right) even allowed himself a variation of just 78 thousandths from his average. Marius Hutmacher followed closely behind the winner with a total deviation of 0.117 seconds.
