17-year-old Elia Pappacena won both races in Group GT4 at the season opener of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse. On the 4,653-metre-long Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, the student from Rudolfstetten was able to assert himself confidently with his 500 hp Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

In the GT3 Cup group, Dylan Yip from Hong Kong has fought his way to two first places. Ethan Ischer from Morges finished second and third in the 911 GT3 Cup. Like Pappacena and Jérémy Siffert, he is a member of the development squad of the Porsche Motorsport Club Suisse and Porsche Schweiz AG. In the particularly hard-fought Class 21 of the Open GT group, Sebastian Schmitt took both victories. This is where the German's 911 GT3 Cup, which also has 510 hp, competes with traction control and racing ABS. In the overall standings of this group, Roderick Christie triumphed first with a current Porsche 911 GT3 R. Together with the Italian Matteo Malucelli, the Briton was then able to win the final two-hour race. In the second Open GT Sprint, Swiss Stephan Heim was ahead.

Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse: GT3 Cup

The season for the 510 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars of the 992 generation in the GT3 Cup Group began with a surprise in Portimao: In qualifying, the Swiss Karen Gaillard secured pole position for both races. However, this result did not bring her much luck: In the first 30-minute run, the rider from the Iron Dames development program initially fell back to fourth place in the first corner, but a foreign contact then threw the 23-year-old to the back of the field. She saw the finish line in twelfth place. For the second race, she was moved back six places in the starting order and was already fifth again when she had to retire on the last lap.

Ethan Ischer was initially able to benefit from Gaillard's bad luck. The 18-year-old catapulted himself from fourth place on the grid to the top in the first race. In round nine, however, he had to give way to Dylan Yip. The 21-year-old took victory with a lead of just under 0.6 seconds. Third place went to the Italian Matteo Beretta ahead of Gregor Burkard. The Swiss from the canton of Zug had previously worked his way up from seventh position to a podium result. His compatriot Sébastien Pidoux finished fifth.

For the second race, Matteo Franco Segre moved up to the front of the grid. The former Formula driver from Turin had been torn out of the first race by a collision. He initially lost the lead to Ischer, but regained it in the fifth lap. Another five laps later, however, Yip was at his rear. The Chinese passed and drove towards his second victory of the day. Segre had to settle for second place by 0.348 seconds ahead of Ischer, Beretta and Burkard.

"I love the track in Portimao, it's very demanding, has a great rhythm, it goes up and down," explains Ethan Ischer. "The first race was very intense. I was able to improve from fourth to first place in the first corner and defend the lead for a long time afterwards, but then the pressure became too much after a hard fight and I finished second. In the second race, I had a good start again from second position and was able to take the lead again until another rider caught up with me and then overtook me. Later, a slight contact was added. After that, the car didn't drive as it did before and I finished third. Overall, however, I'm very satisfied with the two podium finishes at my first GT3 Cup weekend, I learned a lot."

Peter Hegglin caused a sensation in both races with remarkable catch-up races: In the first race, the Swiss worked his way up from 13th position to sixth place, in the second he stormed from eleventh to sixth place. Jérémy Siffert made his debut in the GT3 Cup with a ninth and an eleventh place.

Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse: GT4 Clubsport

For Elia Pappacena, the premiere in Group GT4 could not have gone better: The man from Rudolfstetten started from pole position twice, secured the fastest race lap each time and scored two unchallenged victories. The other places went in this order to the reigning vice champion Remo Stebler, Patrick Schetty, Guillaume Chatelain and Andreas Heiniger.

"The two races went super well for me and I'm also a bit proud of the result," Pappacena enthused. "Before the first race, I was still a bit nervous – I didn't know how to properly manage the race tyres and how to drive a good strategy to the end. But my speed was right and I didn't have to worry about it too much. In the second race, I was able to set my pace right from the start and bring the thing home safely."

Porsche Sports Cup Suisse: Endurance

In the two-hour endurance race at the end of the Portimao weekend, Roderick Christie and Matteo Malucelli crossed the finish line first in their Porsche 911 GT3 R of the 992 generation with up to 565 hp. Their lead over Stefan Heim and Michael Joos after 62 laps at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve: 1.150 seconds. The Swiss and the German were able to console themselves with victory in class 23 with a 911 GT3 R of the previous generation 991.2. In the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Sebastian Schmitt and Sandro Kaibach took class victory in third place overall. Among the participants with the 500 hp 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, Guillaume and Eric Chatelain, together with the Le Mans experienced professional Simon Trummer, raced across the finish line ahead of their Swiss compatriots Pascal Delafontaine, Richard Feller and Xavier Penalba.

"The Porsche Sports Cup Suisse has made a successful start to the new season in Portugal," says Richard Feller, President of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse. "We have once again experienced top-class motorsport in a highly professional environment. The performance of our three new sponsor riders shows us with two victories and a total of four podium finishes that we have made a good choice."