Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) is the winner of the eighth round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup on the Hungaroring. The points leader lost the sprint to the first corner against pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) but grabbed his chance in lap ten when the Dutchman braked too late at the end of the finish straight: Westbrook snatched the lead and from the 10h to the last lap managed to put six seconds between himself and the rest of the field. Westbrook’s victory here in Budapest is his second this season after winning in Barcelona (Spain).
From halfway onwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen withstood the pressure from Damien Faulkner (Ireland), whose Porsche drew alongside Bleekemolen’s 911 several times during the last two laps. Bleekemolen’s compatriot Jaap van der Lagen crossed the finish line fourth, after putting in a perfect race where he overtook three opponents right at the start.
Jiri Janak (Czech Republic) claimed fifth ahead of Christian Menzel (Germany). The German sat in fifth up until lap eight when he was nudged into a spin by Faulkner’s Porsche. As a result, Menzel fell back to sixth position where he remained until the flag.
Many of the top drivers were unable to come anywhere near striking distance of a podium placing: Patrick Huisman, who took up the race from eleventh, was forced to retire after colliding with Alzen. His engine stalled and could not be restarted. Alessandro Zampedri (Italy) improved on his 14th starting position to claim seventh, whilst a frustrated Nicolas Armindo (France) gave up after two spins with his poorly set-up car. Uwe Alzen received a penalty of 20 seconds for a hard manoevre against David Saelens (Belgium) and was classified 18th.
Richard Westbrook increases his lead in the championship, and now holds a 16 point advantage over second-placed Damien Faulkner. Uwe Alzen remains in third ahead of Zampedri, Huisman and Menzel respectively.
Richard Westbrook (winner): “What a great and fantastic race! Right from the start Jeroen was struggling a bit with the brakes. I put him under pressure, and my plan worked. Then I pulled away from the field. I was able to do this primarily because my opponents were having a good go at each other and also because my car was running beautifully. This result is great for the team. In the last three, four races we had experienced a few problems.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen (second): “Braking for the first corner I locked up front, for the second corner at the rear. But apart from the braking problems my car handled perfectly. Richard was simply unbeatable today.”
Damien Faulkner (third): “A great result and a base to build on. I’m sorry for Christian, but he was so slow and blocking everybody. I got inside him but instead of conceding the space he didn’t give in.”
Jaap van der Lagen (fourth): “I’m a very happy man! From ninth on the grid to fourth at the flag – and this on the Hungaroring! This weekend for me was an emotional roller coaster. On Friday I was the fastest, on Saturday things didn’t go well at all. We discovered that the right rear shock was the problem in qualifying. And today everything went smoothly again – let’s continue like this!”
Race result:
1. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 14 laps in 26:08.292min. (= 140.775kmh)
2. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 6.429sec behind
3. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 6.646
4. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 7.081
5. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 10.306
6. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 12.330
7. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 15.249
8. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 17.509
9. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 19.512
10. Lance D. Arnold (D), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 19.757
11. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 20.130
12. Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 21.084
13. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 24.645
14. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, 27.611
15. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 32.833
16. Norbert Kiss (H), Porsche AG, 34.434
17. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 34.907
18. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 35.002
19. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 35.267
20. Andzej Dzikevic (LT), SPS performance, 42.919
21. Oliver Freymuth (D), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 56.261
22. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 56.757
23. Mikael Forsten (FIN), Konrad Motorsport, 68.285
Not classified:
Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 11 laps dnf
Martin Ragginger (A), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 9 laps dnf
Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 6 laps dnf
Marc Basseng (D), HISAQ® Competition,0 lap dnf
Simon Frederiks (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 0 lap dnf
Fastest lap:
R. Westbrook, 1:50.78 min = 142.367kmh in lap 4
