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Nick Tandy's gamble pays off to yield season-opening win
Stuttgart. A rain shower shortly before the start turned the season-opening race of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland into a lottery. Britain's Nick Tandy (Konrad Motorsport) played the right cards in the tyre poker, stayed on slicks – and like last year celebrated his first win of the season. Separated by 1.072 seconds, the reigning champion of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, René Rast (Germany, Fà¶rch Racing), saw the chequered flag on the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg in second. Third over the line after 18 laps was Sean Edwards (Great Britain, Team Deutsche Post by tolimit).
Lady Luck was not smiling on several prominent pilots. Pole-sitter Robert Renauer (Germany, Herberth Motorsport), title defender Nicolas Armindo (France) as well as his Danish teammate Nicki Thiim driving for the championship winning team from 2010, Hermes Attempto Racing, switched to wet tyres prior to the start only to fall back once the track started to dry.
Second qualifier, Nick Tandy, played all his cards right. The Briton virtually inherited the pole position because Renauer started the race from the pits after changing to rain tyres. Putting in a perfect start, Tandy then quickly pulled away while the rest of the field were busy fighting amongst themselves. The strategically clever runner-up from last year could increase his lead so much that his rivals René Rast and Sean Edwards were able to close the gap in the second half but had no chance of snatching the lead from the Briton.
Fourth at the flag after a turbulent race was Jeroen Bleekemolen from the Netherlands, who drives for the Team Deutsche Post by tolimit as Edwards' teammate – and not only promptly lived up to his new team's high expectations. Thanks to Edwards and Bleekemolen's results this weekend, the squad occupies first place in the team classification. In the very final moment, double Supercup champion Bleekemolen had snatched position four off two-time Carrera Cup title winner Uwe Alzen. The German, who runs his own team 'PZ Aschaffenburg Uwe Alzen Automotive' this season, had to settle for fifth, just 0.2 seconds behind the Dutchman.
Sixth and seventh place went to Jan Seyffarth and Jaap van Lagen. The German (SMS Seyffarth Motorsport) and the Dutchman (Land Motorsport) delivered a spirited duel which saw Jaap van Lagen take a spectacular journey off the track but thanks to his ultra fast reflexes he brought his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup off the wet grass and back on to the track to finish the race.
Stuttgart. A rain shower shortly before the start turned the season-opening race of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland into a lottery. Britain's Nick Tandy (Konrad Motorsport) played the right cards in the tyre poker, stayed on slicks – and like last year celebrated his first win of the season. Separated by 1.072 seconds, the reigning champion of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, René Rast (Germany, Fà¶rch Racing), saw the chequered flag on the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg in second. Third over the line after 18 laps was Sean Edwards (Great Britain, Team Deutsche Post by tolimit).
Lady Luck was not smiling on several prominent pilots. Pole-sitter Robert Renauer (Germany, Herberth Motorsport), title defender Nicolas Armindo (France) as well as his Danish teammate Nicki Thiim driving for the championship winning team from 2010, Hermes Attempto Racing, switched to wet tyres prior to the start only to fall back once the track started to dry.
Second qualifier, Nick Tandy, played all his cards right. The Briton virtually inherited the pole position because Renauer started the race from the pits after changing to rain tyres. Putting in a perfect start, Tandy then quickly pulled away while the rest of the field were busy fighting amongst themselves. The strategically clever runner-up from last year could increase his lead so much that his rivals René Rast and Sean Edwards were able to close the gap in the second half but had no chance of snatching the lead from the Briton.
Fourth at the flag after a turbulent race was Jeroen Bleekemolen from the Netherlands, who drives for the Team Deutsche Post by tolimit as Edwards' teammate – and not only promptly lived up to his new team's high expectations. Thanks to Edwards and Bleekemolen's results this weekend, the squad occupies first place in the team classification. In the very final moment, double Supercup champion Bleekemolen had snatched position four off two-time Carrera Cup title winner Uwe Alzen. The German, who runs his own team 'PZ Aschaffenburg Uwe Alzen Automotive' this season, had to settle for fifth, just 0.2 seconds behind the Dutchman.
Sixth and seventh place went to Jan Seyffarth and Jaap van Lagen. The German (SMS Seyffarth Motorsport) and the Dutchman (Land Motorsport) delivered a spirited duel which saw Jaap van Lagen take a spectacular journey off the track but thanks to his ultra fast reflexes he brought his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup off the wet grass and back on to the track to finish the race.