Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, race 17 in Hockenheim
Maiden Carrera Cup win for Porsche Junior Michael Christensen
Stuttgart. The 22-year-old Porsche Junior
Michael Christensen has concluded his debut season in the Porsche
Carrera Cup Deutschland with flying colours. Driving for Konrad
Motorsport, the Dane won the final round of Germany’s fastest one-make
race series on the Hockenheimring from pole position. Christensen beat
second-placed Kévin Estre (France, Hermes Attempto Racing) to the flag
by 3.2 seconds. The last podium spot went to Christensen’s teammate
Norbert Siedler (Austria). The second Porsche Junior only missed out on a
podium result by a hair’s breadth. Trailing Siedler by just 0.5
seconds, Porsche Junior Klaus Bachler (Austria, Team Deutsche Post by
tolimit) saw the flag after a spirited final race in fourth place. René
Rast (Germany, Team Deutsche Post by tolimit), who secured the series’
title yesterday, went off the track and retired.
At the final
race weekend of the season, Michael Christensen experienced a weekend of
mixed emotions. After an outstanding qualifying which yielded him the
fourth and second grid spots, only 0.009 seconds separated him from the
pole-setting time for Sunday’s race. After tyre damage threw him to the
back of the field on Saturday, luck was on his side today. When the
fastest qualifier Sean Edwards (Great Britain, Team Deutsche Post by
tolimit) was relegated to the eleventh grid position due to a sporting
penalty, the young Dane inherited the first spot. And he made the most
of it. With a dream start, Christensen pulled to the front of the field
and, keeping his cool, drove a faultless race to bring home his first
victory in the 450 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Only in the early phase,
three time winner this season Nicki Thiim (Denmark, Hermes Attempto
Racing) closed in on him. Thiim, however, lost the front lip of the 911
when he scraped over the kerbs and gradually fell back down the field
from the eighth of 18 laps. Lap for lap, Christensen then succeeded in
making up ground over Kévin Estre now running in second. Second place at
yesterday’s race was enough for the Frenchman to take home the rookie
classification for new-comers. Christensen is second in the
classification, whereas Estre came to the Carrera Cup Deutschland in
2012 already with a wealth of experience as a Porsche race driver. He is
the reigning champion of the French Carrera Cup and won the rookie
classification of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in 2011.
Michael
Christensen’s success at the end of the season came as no great
surprise. Already at race four on the Lausitzring, the Dane had snatched
third place. He consistently qualified amongst the fastest in the
highly competitive field but so many times had to pay tribute for his
inexperience in the Porsche sports car. In the karting and Formula
scene, the Dane is regarded as world class. His successes opened the
door for a try out at the Porsche selection for talented youngsters.
Last winter against strong international competition, he and Klaus
Bachler were chosen to take part in the junior programme. Part of the
support the two Porsche juniors receive in their Carrera Cup campaign is
financial funding as well coaching by the long-standing professional
race driver Sascha Maassen. In Hockenheim, the juniors were assisted by
Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard while Maassen contested the ALMS in
America. Porsche has actively and successfully supported talented
youngsters since 1997.
For Klaus Bachler as well, another fourth
place was a good farewell performance to the 2012 Carrera Cup season.
He took off into the race from seventh on the grid and again underlined
his skill at perfect starts and the right feeling where to safely get
through any trouble spots. Already after the second lap, the 21-year-old
was sitting in fifth, and with a clean overtaking manoeuvre then
managed to slip into fourth – and there he became stuck behind Norbert
Siedler. Over the entire second half of the race, the junior put the
seasoned racer under pressure and played his card. But Siedler fended
off the attacks with all means possible, leaving Bachler without any
chance to get past. The junior narrowly missed out on clinching his
second podium result after his third place at his home race in
Spielberg. Bachler concludes the season in third place in the rookie
classification behind Christensen. The young Austrian also launched his
career the classic way in the kart. In 2007 he shone in the Formula
Lista with five victories and the junior title, two years later he
secured the vice-championship of the ADAC Formula Masters with ten
podium places and two victories. Last season he ranked third overall in
the ATS Formula 3 Cup with two race wins.
The junior from the
Styria region of Austria also celebrated his best result for the Team
Deutsche Post by tolimit with fourth place. Behind him in fifth came his
teammate Sean Edwards. For the title favourite and vice-champion, the
weekend was a bitter disappointment. He travelled to the Hockenheimring
with high hopes of taking home the trophy. But again tyre damage robbed
the race leader of his dream. Because Edwards took a shortcut to pick up
a new tyre during race 16 on Saturday and left the track, he was
black-flagged. He ignored this, however, and was disqualified from
yesterday’s race and received a penalty which saw him relegated ten grid
positions down the field for the final race.
Sixth went to
Nicki Thiim. Behind the Dane, guest driver Robert Renauer (Germany,
Attempto Racing) crossed the finish line in seventh. His teammate
Philipp Frommenwiler (Switzerland) saw the flag in eighth ahead of
Philipp Eng (Austria, MRS GT-Racing) and Robert Lukas (Poland, Förch
Racing) in tenth.
Christina Nielsen (Denmark, Farnbacher ESET
Racing) won the amateur classification in front of “Bill Barazetti”
(Germany, MRS GT-Racing), who had already claimed the inaugural amateur
title yesterday.
On 22 October, the Monday after the race
weekend, news station N24 televises the 30-minute “Porsche Carrera Cup
Magazin” at 18.30 hours. Sport1 will again televise the final race this
afternoon from 16.00 hours in full length and airs Carrera Cup
highlights on Saturday, 3 November, from 18.00 to 18.30 hours.
Michael
Christensen (Porsche Junior, winner): “That was a fantastic race for
me. I have been trying since the start of the season to achieve this
result. Today everything paid off from what I’ve learned in my year as a
Porsche junior in the Carrera Cup. Over the last months I’ve worked
hard on reaching this goal. My start was good and that was important.
Afterwards I controlled the race. I just had to focus on driving a clean
race to the flag. And it seems as if that worked.”
Kévin Estre
(second): “To start from fourth and finish in second was a good race for
me. All in all I pleased with the weekend and my two podium results.
Nicki and I were driving the same pace early on but then he lost the
front lip of his 911. I slipped past and was keen to go after Michael
but he was simply too quick.”
Norbert Siedler (third): “Third
place is okay for the final, especially after starting from fifth. The
speed was there but unfortunately I experienced a lot of oversteer so I
couldn’t get any further ahead.”
Klaus Bachler (Porsche Junior,
fourth): “That was a super race! I started from seventh and finished in
fourth. In the first lap there was a minor incident when René’s and my
car touched. But nothing happened. A couple of laps later I overtook
Philipp Eng and that was really good. My car ran well from the first to
the last lap. I caught up to Norbert and even managed to overtake him in
the hairpin, but he got past me again. I kept fighting to the flag but I
didn’t really get another chance to pass. Now I’m eighth in the overall
ranking and third amongst the rookies. I’m happy with that.”
Timo
Bernhard (Porsche works driver, junior coach): “That was of course a
wonderful conclusion for the Porsche juniors, a real highlight, crowned
with Michael Christensen’s victory. Congratulations to him. He did
everything perfectly right from the start. Michael put the pressure on
over the first few laps so that he could build up a gap to the others
and control the race from then on. But Klaus Bachler also did a super
job. He came from seventh and had moved into fifth place after two laps.
An overtaking manoeuvre put him in fourth place and then he pressured
Siedler. It would have been fabulous if both juniors had climbed the
podium today.”
Result race 171. Michael Christensen (DK), Konrad Motorsport, 31:14.380 minutes
2. Kévin Estre (F), Hermes Attempto Racing, + 3.242 seconds
3. Norbert Siedler (A), Konrad Motorsport, + 6.395
4. Klaus Bachler (A), Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, + 6.807
5. Sean Edwards (GB), Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, + 7.142
6. Nicki Thiim (DK), Hermes Attempto Racing, + 20.378
7. Robert Renauer (D), Attempto Racing, + 24.793
8. Philipp Frommenwiler (CH), Attempto Racing, + 25.433
9. Philipp Eng (A), MRS GT-Racing, + 26.741
10. Robert Lukas (PL), Förch Racing, + 28.294
Result amateurs1. Christina Nielsen (DK), Farnbacher ESET Racing, 32:15.329 minutes
2. Harrie Kolen (NL), Land-Motorsport, + 1:04.391 minutes
3. “Bill Barazetti“ (D), MRS GT-Racing, + 1:12.985
Overall drivers’ classification1. René Rast (D), 242 points
2. Sean Edwards (GB), 233
3. Nicki Thiim (DK), 202
4. Kévin Estre (F), 181
5. Norbert Siedler (A), 178
Amateur classification1. “Bill Barazetti” (D), 256 points
2. Harrie Kolen (NL), 233
3. Wolf Nathan (NL), 217
Rookie classification1. Kévin Estre (F), 181 points
2. Michael Christensen (DK), 148
3. Klaus Bachler (A), 122
Team classification1. Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, 483 points
2. Hermes Attempto Racing, 388
3. Konrad Motorsport, 338
Communication Porsche AG
Motorsport Press
Oliver Hilger
