Motorsport

Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, round 5 at the French Grand Prix, race report: Alzen celebrates convincing

Uwe Alzen from Germany secured victory at the fifth round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup on the Circuit de Nevers. Under wet and difficult track conditions the 39-year-old Supercup champion of 1994 started from pole position and dominated the 11-lap race until crossing the finish line in first.

Due to the slippery track surface spectators witnessed many changes of positions, with pilots often ending up offside. After stopping the race due to the difficult conditions, Nicolas Armindo was classified second. The Frenchman had taken up his home race from 14th to see the chequered flag 13.4 seconds behind Alzen. Armindo (25) snatched his podium result in the penultimate lap when he ousted his compatriot Olivier Maximin from third before overtaking the reigning champion Richard Westbrook (Great Britain), who secured third.

With a gap of 16.2 seconds from the winner, the 2005 Supercup champion, Alessandro Zampedri finished fifth ahead of the reigning Carrera Cup Great Britain champion Damien Faulkner (Ireland) in sixth. UPS-Porsche junior Martin Ragginger (Austria) took the flag on the 4.4 kilometre Grand Prix circuit in seventh, whilst his team mate Lance David Arnold (Germany) fought hard for positions to finally reach the finish line in 20th.

In the drivers championship of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, Richard Westbrook retains his lead with 82 points. Moving into second place is Porsche specialist Uwe Alzen (74 points), relegating Damien Faulkner to rank third overall with 72 points.

The next round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place this coming weekend (8 July) as support to the British Grand Prix in Silverstone.

Uwe Alzen (winner): “The circuit was unbelievably slippery after the rain. The conditions today were diabolical. For the first two laps I cautiously felt my way around to find the safest line. Then from lap three I put my foot down, but it was very difficult. With my victory I’m now in second. We moving in the right direction.”

Nicolas Armindo (second): “Second for me is fantastic. I’m really pleased about this. Actually I hadn’t calculated on such a success at my home race. From 14th to finish second is simply a dream come true. I finally been able to prove that I’m fast.”

Richard Westbrook (third): “I really didn’t think I could take third today. My start was very slow as I wanted to avoid taking any risks. And then third place – that’s great. Second would have been possible but under these conditions I didn’t want to get into trouble – I’m a happy man.”

Martin Ragginger (seventh): “My vehicle was perfectly set-up. As the lap times show I was matching the pace of the front-runners. At one stage I fell back to 15th and had to fight my way back up to seventh. Of course it could have been better but I’m satisfied.”

Race result (provisional):1. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 22:06.292 minutes (131.202 kph)
2. Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 13.484 seconds behind
3. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 13.842
4. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 14.577
5. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 16.176
6. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 20.885
7. Martin Ragginger (A), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 24.314
8. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 27.493
9. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 28.235
10. Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 34.624
11. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 35.198
12. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 36.248
13. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 40.658
14. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, 52.191
15. Bernhard ten Brinke (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 66.576
16. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 77.240
17. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 89.029
18. Nemunas Dagilis (LT), SPS performance, 103.876
19. Maher Algadri (RI), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 1 lap
20. Lance D. Arnold (D), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 1 lap
21. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 1 lap22. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, DNF

Not classified:
Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, DNF
Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, DNF
Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, DNF
Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnbal Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, DNF
Michael Schrey (D), HISAQ® Competition, DNF
Mikael Forsten (FIN), Konrad Motorsport, DNF

Fastest race lap:
Richard Westbrook, 1:57.592 minutes = 135.039 kph in lap 7