Porsche Cup Monza: Unbeatable guest drivers 🎥
The fourth weekend of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse 2023 in Monza was dominated by four GT3 guest drivers, including former champion Alexander Fach. Johannes Kapfinger once again scored the full number of points for the Swiss classification.
The GT3 Cup was pleased to welcome prominent guest entrants in Monza. With Alexander Fach - 2020 and 2021 champion - and his teammates Morris Schuring from the Netherlands and Gustav Burton from Great Britain, three participants from the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup used the first race to prepare for their season finale at the Italian GP in September. They were joined by Israeli Ariel Levi, a fast man from the German Porsche Carrera Cup.
The four of them fought out the first places among themselves. While Schuring took a start-finish victory, Fach was narrowly beaten by 1.330 seconds. A week earlier, the driver from Schwyz had celebrated his first Supercup victory at Silverstone. Third place went to Burton, who managed to beat Levi on the second lap (podium top gallery left).
Movement behind the top quartet
Johannes Kapfinger finished fifth behind this quartet, which is not scored for the championship, and was able to enjoy the full points haul. Behind the sponsored driver of the Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG, the action was lively.
After the retirements of Alexander Schwarzer, Peter Hegglin and the US guest starter Anthony Imperato, William Mezzetti moved up to 6th place behind Kapfinger and ahead of Greg Burkard.
From the very back to the podium
In the second sprint race, the registered GT3 Cup contenders again remained almost among themselves. Only Ariel Levi (upper gallery, center) again rose to the challenge and won from pole position with a razor-thin lead of 0.685 seconds ahead of Johannes Kapfinger (upper gallery, right). However, the man from Passau had no reason to risk anything either, because the Israeli played no role in his championship ambitions.
Alexander Schwarzer, who like Peter Hegglin started from the back row with fresh Michelin racing tires, showed a terrific race to catch up. The Porsche Racing Expierence graduate finished fourth and third respectively in the CH standings behind Mezzetti, Hegglin sixth behind Marc Arn.
Michael Kapfinger, Johannes' twin brother, won the first Open GT race with the current 911 GT3 Cup (lower gallery, left) ahead of Jörg Dreisow in the 991-generation 911 GT3 R. In the second heat, both had to admit defeat to Dustin Blattner from the USA. Fastest drivers from Switzerland were Philipp Hagnauer (991 GT3 Cup) in fifth place in the first heat and Enzo Calderari/Philippe Menotti (991 GT3 R) in the second.
Two GT4 wins for Mottet
In the field of various GT4 sports cars, Alexandre Mottet in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport with Manthey package prevailed twice (lower center gallery). Pole setter Jens Richter had to park his car in the first sprint shortly after the start, whereupon Mottet took the lead in the race and in the championship.
Previous leader Patrick Schetty finished second ahead of Detlef Schmidt and Patrick Wäger, while Markus Lietzau and Remo Stebler had to retire early. Lietzau, who had previously been second in the standings, also stayed on the track in the second sprint. Mottet, meanwhile, won the duel with Schetty. From 11th on the grid, Remo Stebler took fourth place.
Uniformly fast to two heat wins
Tommy Eriksson seems to have finally arrived in the Porsche Drivers Competition. In Monza he secured first place twice in the Classic classification. At the wheel of his 997-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS (lower gallery, right), he allowed himself only a 1.16-second deviation from his own average time of 2:17.05 minutes in the shorter uniformity competition over five laps. Second place went to Pascal Godel ahead of Peter Meister. The two had shared the victories in Imola.
In the longer run, for which eight rounds were compared, Eriksson's difference was 1.28 seconds. This time Meister took second place and Godel third. In the Chrono classification, Nicolas Garski initially had to admit defeat to Virgil Keller, but then reversed the order again in the second run.
porschemotorsportclubsuisse.ch