A year after his first Silverstone win, Porsche Junior Ayhancan Güven gives us a repeat victory performance. A triumph that made the fight for the championship title during the last three laps even more exciting.
What makes for a perfect 70th Anniversary Formula 1 Grand Prix? A thrilling race featuring 25 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars! After the first rather clear race at Silverstone last weekend, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup turned up the volume on Sunday and gave us plenty of overtaking action. One driver stood out from the rest: Porsche Junior #22 Ayhancan Güven (TUR/Martinet by Alméras), who realised his second Supercup victory at exactly the same point where he had won last year.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a fight for the win. Two Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup experts, #25 Larry ten Voorde (NED/Team GP Elite), who took the win at Silverstone the week before, and Overall Classification leader #2 Dylan Pereira (LUX/BWT Lechner Racing) were turning up the heat. On paper, it seems like a simple start-finish victory, but that wasn’t the case.
Porsche Junior keeps calm under pressure.
Having had a good start, Güven immediately turned his pole position into the lead. In addition, the starting grid positions right behind him also stayed the same: ten Voorde followed by Rookie #24 Max van Splunteren (NED/Team GP Elite), Pereira, and the surprisingly strong Rookie #4 Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (FRA/Lechner Racing Middle East).The pack of five should have determined the race, however it was interrupted for two laps by a safety car just after the start. When the race restarted, Pereira was able to overtake van Splunteren, a maneuver no one was able to achieve during last week’s race. Heading into turn 3 (Village) Pereira pushed forward on the outside of the Dutchman and therefore was on the faster inside lane at turn 4 (Loop). This moved him into P3 and put him within striking distance of ten Voorde.
Team GP Elite’s top driver and last week's winner put Güven under pressure at the restart but pulling out some of his racing driver tricks, the Porsche Junior defended well. Meanwhile, Pereira’s attempts to get closer were unsuccessful against ten Voorde, which handed the Dutchman another three points against the overall leader. Güven and his two racing companions crossed the finish line within just 1.135 seconds!
Rookies fight the tougher battles.
Once again the Rookies provided plenty of entertainment on Sunday. For several laps, Max van Splunteren defended his Rookie victory over intense attacks from Simmenauer. The Frenchman drove his strongest Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race so far in his young career. He attacked van Splunteren several times and was even able to come abreast of him in Brooklands. But van Splunteren managed to keep the upper hand through Luffield and finished fourth.
Beyond the top 5, another group provided plenty of action. In the middle of it all, Porsche Junior #1 Jaxon Evans (NZL/BWT Lechner Racing), who took third on last week's podium, was contending with a number of young savages. One of which was the Norwegian #10 Marius Nakken (NOR/Dinamic Motorsport) who in turn got into two jostles: once with Rookie #3 Leon Köhler (GER/Lechner Racing Middle east) and another time with #8 Julian Hanses (GER/Lechner Racing Middle East). Evans also found himself in several situations where he needed to brake sharply.
The person who benefited the most from these varying scenes was Rookie #23 Marvin Klein (FRA/Martinet by Alméras). Using the battles for position in front of him to his advantage, the French Rookie made an outstanding advancement from eleventh place on the grid to P6 and third place in the Rookie Classification.
At the start of the race, contact wasn’t so gentle. A collision between #31 Daan van Kuijk (NED/GP Elite), #6 Jordan Love (AUS/FACH AUTO TECH) and #11 Moritz Sager (AUT/Dinamic Motorsport) triggered the safety car phase during the first lap. After being hit by van Kuijk, Jordan Love stood perpendicular on the track with his foot still on the gas getting in Moritz Sager’s line, who was approaching from behind, and hit him at the rear axle. Both drivers were forced to park their heavily damaged racing cars. Van Kuijk who caused the accident however was able to continue driving, but received a time penalty. Love will be moved five grid positions back in the next race.
Sager breaks Lindland's ProAm winning streak.
Turning up the heat even more this past weekend was the fight for the win in the ProAm Classification. #12 Philipp Sager (AUT/Dinamic Motosport), #20 Roar Lindland (NOR/Pierre Martinet by Alméras) and #21 Clément Mateu (FRA/Pierre Martinet by Alméras) were glued together for 13 laps in their 485 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. At the finish line, only 0.882 seconds separated them! In the end it was Sager who broke Lindland's three back-to-back race victory winning streak.
This brings us to the conclusion of the second Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup “double header” of the 2020 season. Without any pause to catch their breath, the series continues next weekend, from August 14th on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Drivers and teams will be #AcceleratingPassion on the track, in a championship where nothing has been decided yet.
