Porsche Mobil1 Supercup – Round 3 – Barcelona
Porsche Mobil1 Supercup – Round 3 – Barcelona
Written by Vince Pettit
Siedler handed first win after Edwards penalised
Norbert Siedler was handed his first Porsche Mobil1 Supercup win this weekend after race winner Sean Edwards was handed a penalty that dropped him down the order after a collision with Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Edwards dominated the race leading from the first corner as he got the jump on pole-sitter Bleekemolen. As the laps counted down Bleekemolen pushed hard to close the gap and on lap twelve managed to pull alongside Edwards, but the manoeuvre wasn’t enough as the Englishman defended.
As the field came around for the last lap Bleekemolen would time his move to perfection, heading up the inside of the tolimit Porsche this time making the move stick. Edwards wasn’t about to let the Dutchman get away with it though, as he pushed hard to regain the position he locked his brakes, careering in to the back of the Lechner Racing Porsche of Bleekemolen, spinning him around. Edwards would pass through by take the win as Bleekemolen recovered to take fourth position.
Norbert Siedler and Patrick Huisman would cross the finish line in second and third positions respectively, only to be promoted to the top two spots after stewards deemed the Edwards/Bleekemolen incident avoidable, handing the Englishman a twenty-five second penalty.
Despite taking the win Siedler admitted he would of like to have taken his first victory in the series with an outright win. “I would have preferred to win my first Supercup race under different conditions, but our team deserves this success. I got away well at the start and managed to match the pace of the front-runners until I got some under steering and lost contact to the leaders. While they fought up ahead, I was able to creep closer in the final laps. My car had a great set-up. Now I hope it’s good enough for a podium result in Monte Carlo.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen was understandably unhappy with the outcome of the last lap after a strong race. “I’m so disappointed. My start was bad, Sean was quicker early on, but I was relatively certain he would eventually experience problems with his tyres. I waited until the final lap to attack. If he hadn’t have hit the rear of my car several corners before the flag, my plan would have worked.”
Double race winner René Rast was left to sit the race out after developing drive shaft problems on the formation lap
Race result
1. Norbert Siedler (A), VELTINS MRS Racing, 26:39.555 minutes
2. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, + 1.156 seconds
3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Al Faisal Lechner Racing, + 1.810
4. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Team Bleekemolen Harders Plaza, + 2.633
5. Nicholas Tandy (GB), Konrad Motorsport, + 4.328
6. Jan Seyffarth (D), VELTINS MRS Racing, + 7.219
Driver’s classification after 3 of 10 races
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), 48 points
2. René Rast (D), 44
3. Nicholas Tandy (GB), 42
4. Stefan Rosina (SK), 40
5. Norbert Siedler (A), 32
6. Jan Seyffarth (D), 31
Round 4 of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place on 16 May as support to the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
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