Porsche Cup Suisse: Jasin Ferati catches up
THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE With good strategy and skill, Gregor Burkard took his first win of the season at Mugello. With an impressive drive in the rainy endurance race, junior Jasin Ferati shortened the gap to GT3 standings leader Jürg Aeberhard.
Changeable weather with a tire poker, numerous position battles and an exciting chase characterized the GT3 Cup sprint race at Mugello. Gregor Burkard emerged as the winner.
Reward for courageous decision
While the track was still wet, he had slick tires fitted to his 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with around 515 hp. Starting from fourth place, he returned from the first lap in second. Ernst Keller, who had opted for rain tires, was initially able to take the lead. On lap four, however, the 2018 GT3 Cup champion had to let Burkard pass on a drying track.
The 34-year-old from the canton of Zug, head of the Sportec team, had a lead of almost four seconds over his pursuer Jürg Aeberhard from ANT peeformance at the finish. The leader of the standings, also on slicks, had earlier managed to beat Marc Arn and Ernst Keller. Just under 26 seconds behind, Alexander Schwarzer saw the finish line in third place ahead of his Fach Auto teammate Jasin Ferati.
Jasin Ferati catching up
The 19-year-old Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG protégé wrote the real story of this race: Despite setting the best qualifying time, the 64-kilogram lightweight was virtually the last to start from the pit lane. After the first lap he was in 15th place.
But this left the Winterthur native unimpressed: On slicks, he consistently worked his way back up through the field. In the tenth of 13 laps, he was back in fourth position and set by far the fastest race lap in the final meters in 1:53.734 minutes. Fifth place went to Jan Klingelnberg, who had started tenth.
The race of his life
Ferati also turned up the heat in the Endurance race. In pouring rain and the onset of darkness, the youngster crossed the finish line as overall winner ahead of the fastest cars from the Open GT group in the 911 GT3 Cup, which has to make do without traction control and ABS in Class 1 as in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup or the national Carrera Cup series.
Jasin Ferati: "I cheered, I was close to tears and I didn't remember everything that happened in this dance on four wheels, where dangers lurked in every corner. I haven't lost sight of the championship title and am already looking forward to the decisive races with Team Fach Auto Tech."
Exciting decision in sight
Ilario Introna and Simone Iaquinta finished the 31-lap race as class runners-up - they came from third-last on the grid. Third place in the GT3 Cup standings was secured by Gregor Burkard, who was able to catch Jürg Aeberhard by 0.051 seconds in the final meters. Fifth place went to Ernst Keller ahead of Marc Arn and Alexander Schwarzer. The trio was within just 2.5 seconds of each other.
Ferati made up four of the 13 points he lost to Aeberhard at Mugello. The decision on Alexander Fach's successor as champion will be made on October 29 with a double sprint at Misano.
Many different class winners in GT4
Pseudonymous guest driver "Boga" clearly beat Alexandre Mottet in the sprint in Class 10 for Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport with so-called Manthey package and took a start-finish victory from pole position. Valerio Presezzi had to admit defeat in the newer GT4 CS RS by 185 thousandths. Jens Richter won Class 11 of the GT4 CS without MR package in fourth place behind Mottet.
In the 82-minute endurance race, the two duos Paolo Locatelli/Fabio Babini and Valerio Presezzi/Max Busnelli with their new RS models advanced to 7th and 8th place in the field of 48 Porsches from all classes. Patrick Hofmann celebrated a superior victory in Class 10 with professional driver Alex Fontana, while soloist Mottet only managed 4th place. In Class 11, veteran Pierre Hirschi took the class win.
In the sprint competition of the Open GT group Loïc Villiger secured first place, in the long race the duo Drmic/Svepes from Austria.
Garski despite rare defeat already uniformity champion
In the Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse (evenness competition), Nicolas Garski decided the first race over six timed laps in his favor with once again impressive consistency. With his Porsche 911 GT3, the defending champion allowed himself a deviation from his own average time of just 0.13 seconds in total.
Second place went to Peter Meister (0.43) ahead of Gabriel Piaget and Marius Hutmacher (0.92 each).
In the second race, however, Garski had to admit defeat for only the second time this year. Increasingly heavy rain made the task of circling the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello as evenly as possible more difficult.
This was the hour of Xavier Penalba in the 911 GT3 RS. The deviation from his own average time was 11.41 seconds. Garski came in at 23.05 seconds and finished second ahead of Marius Hutmacher and Tommy Eriksson.
Even before the season finale at Misano, Garski is thus already established as the old and new champion.
