It was in the 21st of 35 laps of the Porsche Carrera Cup race on Nuremberg’s Norisring, when the eventual winner, Christian Menzel (Germany) took the decisive step towards his success. Menzel sat in fourth, when in the battle for second place both Chris Mamerow and his pursuer Joerg Hardt (both Germany) made a mistake while braking. Hardt spun, and as Mamerow attempted to avoid him, Christian Menzel shot ahead to move into second behind the leading Uwe Alzen. Shortly before the finish Alzen received a 30 second penalty for overtaking the Safety Car during an earlier caution period.
Indeed, Uwe Alzen was the first driver to see the chequered flag. But due to the penalty he was classified 15th while Christian Menzel was declared the race winner, followed by Joerg Hardt and Chris Mamerow. A protest of Uwe Alzen’s team against the decision was rejected.
Richard Westbrook from Great Britain and Nicolas Armindo from France put on a gripping show for the spectators. The Briton – who travelled to Nuremberg ranking second in the points – had to start the race from 22nd after bad luck in qualifying but gave chase in the race to finish a commendable fifth. Armindo finished tenth from 38th on the grid. The Frenchman’s qualifying had come to an abrupt end after four minutes already with a crash.
In the championship Richard Westbrook takes over the lead from Alzen, Nicolas Armindo and Chris Mamerow remain in positions three and four respectively. Joerg Hardt and Christian Menzel rank fifth and sixth.
The sixth round of the Carrera Cup Deutschland takes place on 29 July in the Dutch seaside resort of Zandvoort.
Christian Menzel (winner): “I started out conservatively and brought home a good result. I was driving on fresh slicks and for this reason we’d chosen a low tyre pressure. As we saw in the first laps, it was too low. But my rubber then warmed up and I drove carefully to avoid any trouble. At the end of the day I’m relieved and happy to be back in the picture.”
Joerg Hardt (second): “Considering I started from a modest sixth the race went well. We set-up my car so that it reached its performance peak after the first third of the race. That was a good tactic. As far as the championship is concerned it was very practical for me that Westbrook and Armindo didn’t secure top points. The series is a little closer now.”
Chris Mamerow (third): “That was a fair and fun duel with Joerg. Up until the safety car phase I was in second and everything was running according to plan. Uwe had managed to pull away from us but at the same time I could keep Joerg at bay. Once we got the green flag my tyres were no longer working perfectly. We’re now looking at why this happened.”
