Nicolas Armindo from France won the sixth round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup in Silverstone (Great Britain). Taking up the 14 lap race from pole position Armindo led the field to the first corner and went on to take the chequered flag first. For the 25-year-old Frenchman, who contests his first season in the world’s fastest international one-make cup, this is his first victory in the Supercup.
Trailing the winner by just six-tenths of a second, Patrick Huisman (Netherlands) crossed the finish line second. The four-time Silverstone winner and quadruple Supercup champion started from third on the grid. Directly after the start the 40-year-old fought his way past Christian Menzel (Germany) who had started the race on the 5.1 kilometre Grand Prix circuit from second to finish third.
Ranking fourth and fifth were David Saelens (Belgium) and the reigning champion of the Carrera Cup Great Britain Damien Faulkner (Ireland). Sixth position went to Uwe Alzen (Germany) who retains second in the overall standings.
Reigning Supercup champion Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) experienced a disappointing home race. The 31-year-old received a drive-through penalty from the Stewards of the Meeting during the race for pushing Alessandro Zampedri’s Porsche into a spin while battling for twelfth position in lap twelve. In Saturday’s qualifying Westbrook had been relegated to start from the back of the field due to an infringement of the regulations. Still, the Londoner was able to defend his lead in the championship putting in a spirited chase that ended on 18th place when the chequered flag came out.
Ex-Formula 1 driver Derek Warwick, invited as guest pilot by Porsche AG to contest the Silverstone round, received the flag in 27th.
The next championship round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place in two weeks on 22nd July as support to the European Grand Prix on the Nürburgring.
Nicolas Armindo (winner): “At last my first Supercup win. I’m totally happy with this result. And I’m particularly pleased for my team. They did a great job. The handling was optimal. Everything was perfect.”
Patrick Huisman (second): “I’m very satisfied with this result, especially after last weekend’s disappointing race. Congratulations to tolimit. Both vehicles were extremely fast today. Their cars were really excellent. There wasn’t really any chance though for me to do better.”
Christian Menzel (third): “Position three and Nicolas on first – what a fantastic result for the team. My start was not that good unfortunately. Patrick was simply better and beat me to the first corner. I was a good boy and didn’t want to risk anything. Still, we can all be satisfied with the results this weekend. We have again shown that we have made good progress since Magny-Cours.”
Richard Westbrook (18th): “It seems that the British authorities really have something against their fellow compatriots. The penalty from qualifying was tough enough – still, I accepted it. We are a professional team and were well prepared for the race. As far as the incident with Zampedri was concerned, he simply didn’t look in his rear vision mirror. I tried everything to avoid touching him. I even drove on the grass. Everyone knows that I’m fair – hard but fair. I’m speechless.”
Derek Warwick (27th): “It was a great weekend for me. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fulfil my goals completely, still it was brilliant. The Porsche ran beautifully. I would climb aboard again any time.”
Race result:
1. Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 26:57.883 minutes (159.917 kph)
2. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 0.623 seconds behind
3. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 1.203
4. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 1.661
5. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 2.478
6. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 3.944
7. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 5.326
8. Lance D. Arnold (D), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 6.242
9. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 8.406
10. Martin Ragginger (A), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 14.263
11. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 14.514
12. James Sutton (GB), Porsche Cars Great Britain, 14.825
13. Tim Harvey (GB), Porsche Cars Great Britain, 20.136
14. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 20.443
15. Steven Kane (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 20.679
16. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 28.202
17. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 34.240
18. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 34.536
19. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, 35.273
20. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 35.682
21. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 36.537
22. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 37.706
23. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 40.280
24. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 47.691
25. Timothy Macrow (AU), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 52.181
26. Mikael Forsten (FIN), Konrad Motorsport, 59.716
27. Derek Warwick (GB), Porsche AG, 62.136
28. Simon Frederiks (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 62.823
Not classified:
Michael Schrey (D), HISAQ® Competition, DNF
Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, DNF
Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnabl Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, DNF
Fastest race lap:
Richard Westbrook, 1:54.215 minutes = 162.041 kph in lap 5