Clear lights-to-flag victory for Nicolas Armindo
Nicolas
Armindo put in an
impressive showing in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup securing a clear win
at his guest appearance. Piloting a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup run by Al
Faisal Lechner Racing, the Frenchman beat Germany’s Jan Seyffarth of
VELTINS MRS Racing by 2.226 seconds to the finish line. Christian
Engelhart (GER, SANITEC/GILTRAP Racing) confirmed his strong qualifying
result claiming the last podium spot – his first top three result in
the world’s fastest one make race series. Despite narrowly missing out on the podium, Slovakia’s Stefan Rosina (Lechner Racing) was one of the big winners of the season’s seventh round. He profited from an incident in the first lap that had points’ leader René Rast (GER, Al Faisal Lechner Racing) and his toughest rival, Briton Nicholas Tandy (Konrad Motorsport) leave the Hockenheimring without points. Stefan Rosina moved up to third place in the drivers’ classification, just one point in arrears of Tandy – and returns to the circle of title aspirants.
After Nicholas Tandy parked his car in the pits and René Rast came to a standstill at the sideline with a flat tyre, there was no opposition left for Nicolas Armindo.
The points’ leader and championship favourite from the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland controlled the race from the front, keeping his opposition at a safe distance. Jan Seyffarth finished second scoring his best result of the season so far. Like Christian Engelhart, he found himself busy defending his position during the hectic opening laps and had no capacity to attack the leader. Once the first laps were over, Armindo had pulled away from the field.
Behind
Stefan Rosina, who had
finished third at the season-opener in Bahrain to claim his only podium
finish so far, Holland’s Jaap van Lagen (Team Bleekemolen Harders
Plaza) finished fifth after a tough duel with Norbert Siedler from
Austria, the Barcelona winner. Austria’s Martin Ragginger (Schnabl
Engineering Team Parker Racing), another guest driver from the Porsche
Carrera Cup Deutschland, secured seventh place. Dutchman Sebastiaan
Bleekemolen (Team Bleekemolen Harders Plaza) took eighth. Matt Halliday
(SANITEC/GILTRAP Racing) from New Zealand made it to the ninth place
with Patrick Huisman (Konrad Motorsport), the Supercup record winner
from the Netherlands, occupying the last top ten spot. Mathias Lauda impressed with constant and fast times in the VIP-911 GT3 Cup entered by Porsche AG for prominent guest starters. The son of racing legend Niki Lauda had to pit with a damaged tyre but rejoined the race and finished 20th.
Nicolas Armindo (winner): “What else could I have wished for? As a guest starter I put my car on pole and won the race! It was simply a perfect weekend. I messed up the start slightly when I changed to second gear too early. Still I was fast enough to win the sprint to the first corner, and then I easily controlled the race. I didn’t go particularly flat out because I wanted to be easy on the tyres. But every time Jan put the pressure on I had to accelerate. Still, my win was never under threat.”
Jan Seyffarth (second): “Finally it worked again. Our home race was the perfect place for my comeback to the podium. Obviously there was some luck involved, but that’s how it goes. Towards the end I let off the pace slightly because I noticed that I had no chance to catch Nicholas. I’ve made up some ground in the championship and hope things continue like this.”
Christian Engelhart (third): “All in all I’m very pleased with this race weekend. Shortly after the start I got past Nick Tandy to take second place, when suddenly there was a crash beside me. I thought that was it for me, but my car withstood it well. I think perhaps the steering tie rod had been damaged because initially I experienced huge problems to get the front tyres up to temperature. Once I had grip the race became easier. I hope this wasn’t my last Supercup outing this year. The fun is just starting.”
Race result
1. Nicolas Armindo (F), Al Faisal Lechner Racing, 24:22.602 minutes
2. Jan Seyffarth (D), VELTINS MRS Racing, + 2.226 seconds
3. Christian Engelhart (D), SANITEC/GILTRAP Racing, + 2.944
4. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing, + 5.416
5. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Team Bleekemolen Harders Plaza, + 6.104
6. Norbert Siedler (A), VELTINS MRS Racing, + 9.606
Drivers’ classification after 7 of 10 races
1. René Rast (D), 106 points
2. Nicholas Tandy (GB), 90
3. Stefan Rosina (SK), 89
4. Norbert Siedler (A), 80
5. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), 74
6. Jaap van Lagen (NL), 68
Round 8 of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place on 1 August as support to the Hungarian Grand Prix on the Hungaroring.
