Richard Westbrook won the dramatic seventh round of the Porsche Carrera Cup on the Nürburgring. The Briton took up the 23-lap race from third on the grid and immediately put enormous pressure on Germany’s Uwe Alzen in second. Often, the Porsches of the duelling duo were side-by-side whilst braking for the corners.
In the meantime, Chris Mamerow (Germany) turned his laps in the lead. Starting from pole position, Mamerow had won the sprint to the first corner and drove unchallenged until the twelfth lap. At that point the German’s car experienced a power-train problem and retired.
Uwe Alzen then moved into the lead, but in lap 17 had to let a relentlessly attacking Richard Westbrook past. Right to the flag Alzen attempted to reclaim first place but without luck. The German crossed the finish line in position two 0.4 seconds behind Westbrook. Third went to Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen ahead of René Rast (Germany) and Pierre Kaffer (Switzerland).
Bad luck plagued Nicolas Armindo. The Frenchman travelled to the race ranking third in the championship, qualified his GT3 Cup on fifth – only to be forced into the pits in lap three with tyre damage. Sitting in eighth, Joerg Hardt (Germany), currently ranking fifth in the points, shared a similar fate and retired with tyre problems in the 16th lap. Local hero Christian Menzel was another to suffer a set-back at his home race. Occupying sixth in the championship, Menzel came into the pits with damage to the drive shaft after the formation lap.
With 99 points, Uwe Alzen takes over the lead of the series before the penultimate round in Barcelona (23 September). Richard Westbrook moves from fourth into second position with a gap to the leader of seven points. Chris Mamerow falls back to third overall ahead of Nicolas Armindo.
Richard Westbrook (winner): “That was a brilliant race and it was great to be in the middle of it. The duel with Uwe reminded me of a game of chess. We stalked each other, we waited for a mistake, and we tried to outsmart each other. There was only the one chance at the end of the finish straight where I could grab him. He knew that too. But I got him in the end.”
Uwe Alzen (second): “A weekend made-to-measure. The qualifying worked, our suspension for the race was perfect. The tyres held out very well until the end. Had this been the second or third race of the season, I would have fought much harder against Richard. But our first priority today was to collect those precious points.”Chris Mamerow (retired): “There’s no point complaining. Still, it’s hard. Our tactic seemed to be working. My team mate Jeroen Bleekemolen covered my back directly after the start so I could get away… then suddenly the gear lever stuck.”