At the ninth championship round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup in Istanbul, Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) celebrated another flag-to-flag victory. The 25-year-old ex-DTM pilot made a good start from pole position and was able to pull away from his opponents early on in the race to receive the chequered flag in first position. For the Dutchman, this marks his third pole to flag win in the series this year after claiming the Monaco and Nürburgring rounds.
Damien Faulkner provided spectators with a dramatic finale when he came within one second of the Dutchman. As they crossed the finish line, just 1.018 seconds separated the pair. The 30-year-old Faulkner had taken up the race from third on the grid. After making a slow get-away the Irishman slipped back into fourth behind Uwe Alzen (Germany), but reclaimed third in the second corner. In lap four Faulkner then grabbed to chance to overtake his team mate Stefan Rosina (Slovakia) to claim second after 13 laps. Starting from second, Rosina was unable to withstand the pressure from Uwe Alzen (Germany) and Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) and saw the flag in fifth. Forty-year-old Uwe Alzen secured third ahead of the current points leader Richard Westbrook in fourth.
Christian Menzel (Germany) finished the 13-lap race ranking sixth, followed by the 2005 Supercup champion Alessandro Zampedri from Italy.
The next round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place on 9 September 2007 as support to the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
Jeroen Bleekemolen (winner): “That was a really tough race. I started with a fresh set of tyres and was able to pull away quite early on. But by the end my rubber had deteriorated. The rear tyres were completely gone and Damien was breathing down my neck. I knew I had to drive at my absolute limit to bring this victory home. I’m totally thrilled. Let’s hope I can do this again at the next races.”
Damien Faulkner (second): “That was definitely one of the most difficult races in my life. I had a terrible start and hence experienced huge problems trying to hang on to my position. My team had given me a perfect car. The Porsche was set-up sensationally. Second position is fantastic.”
Uwe Alzen (third): “That was a good, clean race. Third is not that bad, but still I’m disappointed not to have done better today. Hopefully things will look up next time.”
Richard Westbrook (fourth): “After an extremely difficult qualifying, fourth is a wonderful result. Yesterday we hadn’t set the car up correctly for this circuit, so we knew it was going to be tough today. Under the circumstances fourth was the best I could do.”
Race result:
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 28:07.504 minutes (158.984 kph)
2. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 1.018 second behind
3. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 5.227
4. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 9.355
5. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 10.607
6. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 20.024
7. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 23.059
8. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg,24.014
9. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 25.860
10. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 27.866
11. Marc Basseng (D), HISAQ® Competition, 30.600
12. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 31.296
13. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 33.683
14. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 35.558
15. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 37.470
16. Mikael Forsten (FI), Konrad Motorsport, 45.478
17. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 45.986
18. Simon Frederiks (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 46.430
19. Alexandre Negrão (BR), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 48.404
20. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnbal Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 52.018
21. Andzej Dzikevic (LT), SPS performance, DNF
22. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, DNF
Not classified:
David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, DNF
Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, DNF
Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, DNF
Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, DNF
Christian Jones (AU), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, DNF
Fastest lap:
Jeroen Bleekemolen, 1:59.847 minutes = 160.344 kph in lap 5