The fight for the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup championship shifts into top gear at the penultimate round in Monza, Italy. Reigning champion Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) as well as Damien Faulkner (Ireland) and Uwe Alzen (Germany) all hold excellent chances to claim the title. Points leader Westbrook would have to finish in at least seventh position to win the world’s fastest international one-make series before the end of the season.
His toughest rival, Damien Faulkner, showed at the previous round in Istanbul that he has not given up on the trophy. The Irishman was flagged off as second ahead of Porsche ace Uwe Alzen and Richard Westbrook. In the overall classification, Faulkner knocked four points off the gap to the Briton. With two races left on the calendar, just 12 points now separate the 30-year-old Faulkner from the leader.
In theory, Uwe Alzen is also still in contention for the title. The Royal Park circuit suits the Supercup champion of 1994, which he impressively underlined last year by setting two new records: The 40-year-old German won with an average speed of 183.060 kph – the fastest race in the history of the Supercup. Moreover, Alzen turned the fastest race lap ever in the Supercup with a speed of 185.173 kph. The old records (av. speed 178.783 kph and 181.481 kph fastest lap) were posted here in Monza back in 1998.
The 5.79 kilometre Grand Prix circuit is the ideal venue for entering the finish-straight of the 2007 Porsche Mobil1 Supercup season. As the last real high-speed circuit of the year, this track puts man and machine under stress. The combination of long straights and slow chicanes places huge demands on the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes PCCB, which are used exclusively in the series. Particularly challenging for the pilots is the Variante Rettifilo directly after the finish straight. “We fly into this extremely slow chicane with our 911 GT3 Cup at over 270 kph. In the braking zone the width of the circuit becomes narrow which makes overtaking very tricky,” says Richard Westbrook, “so my motto is ‘take care and avoid risks.”
Driver classification after nine rounds:
1. Richard Westbrook (Great Britain), 139 points
2. Damien Faulkner (Ireland), 127 points
3. Uwe Alzen (Germany), 107 points
4. Alessandro Zampedri (Italy), 90 points
5. Christian Menzel (Germany), 88 points
6. Patrick Huisman (Netherlands), 81 points
7. Nicolas Armindo (France), 72 points
8. David Saelens (Belgium), 68 points
9. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), 67 points
10. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (Great Britain), 42 points