Many interruptions at Hockenheimring – update 2

Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup 2019 had made it to Hockenheimring, which was the sixth round of the Championship.

The qualifying was run in the dry, and it was an amazingly close session, since most of the field knows the track from either Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland or the previous PMSC seasons.

Larry ten Voorde had taken Pole Position, while Dylan Pereira finally was back in the front of the field with P2. Michael Ammermüller started P3, ahead of Tio Ellinas, Florian Latorre and championship leader Julien Andlauer.

The first 13 cars in the field was within a second of Pole Position, in the 32-car field.

Ten Voorde got off to an awful start and was down in third even before the first corner.

Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen had started the race in 8th, but was up to fourth in Turn 2, with a late dive on the brakes on Tio Ellinas and Florian Latorre.

Miraculously we got all the cars through the hairpin on the first lap, without major contact.

Pereira had run away out front, while ten Voorde put Ammermüller under a lot of pressure.

There was a collision between ten Voorde and the rear of Ammermüller on the second lap, resulting in Pedersen closing up to the pair.

It went horribly wrong on Lap 4 in the hairpin. Pedersen had a huge run on ten Voorde, and outbraked him, but ended up clattering into Ammermüller, who had taken a much wider line into the corner. The front suspension of Pedersen was all smashed up, as was the rear suspension of Ammermüller.

That resulted in a Safety Car, due to the many debris on the track, and the stricken 911 GT3 Cup car of Pedersen.

Extra excitement was added to the race, since it started dripping a little during the Safety Car period. With 29 remaining cars, all on slicks, it could be quite some hairy restart.

Dylan Pereira led the restart ahead of Larry ten Voorde and Tio Ellinas – but only did so until Turn 2, where the rain was hammering down. The whole of the field outbraked themselves, and Pereira was so much off the track, that it looked like he gone of the old track through the forest. He ended up dropping to 6th.

Gianmarco Quaresmini and Ayhancan Güven spun in the middle of the field, while Roar Lindland, Pontus Fredricsson and Saul Hack also was off the track. With the cars of Fredricsson and Hack being parked in the middle of the track, the Safety Car was scrambled again.

The new order was Larry ten Voorde, Tio Ellinas, Julien Andlauer and Florian Latorre.

Race control decided to stop the race, since they had spend so much time with the clearing up, plus it would be too risky sending 26 cars onto a soaking wet race track on slicks.

So Larry ten Voorde won his first Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race, ahead of Tio Ellinas, which was the first podium for the driver from Cyprus. Julien Andlauer completed the race in P3, ahead of Florian Latorre, Jaap van Lagen and the perhaps most unlucky man of the day, Dylan Pereira.

Julien Andlauer has a 17-point lead in the championship, with Larry ten Voorde in second. Michael Ammermüller (no points in today’s race) are further two points behind, while Florian Latorre is up to fourth, ahead of Ayhancan Güven (no points in today’s race), Tio Ellinas and Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen (no points in today’s race).

There are still four rounds to go of Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, so there are still 80 points for the winners to grab. The next race is in just a week time, when the series visits the Hungaroring in Hungary.

Update – Dylan Pereira was scored as winner, after the stewards decided to reverse the result to stand after 7 laps i.e. prior to the restart of the race. Pereira wins in front of Larry ten Voorde and Tio Ellinas.

Update 2 – No points will be awarded for today’s race, since 50% of the race distance wasn’t achieved. So Julien Andlauer still leads the Championship by three points to Michael Ammermüller and Ayhancan Güven in third. Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen still sits fourth, but has a 5-grid penalty for the race next weekend, since the stewards decided him to be responsible for the crash.