Marçal Muller and Miguel Mariotti lead free practice for the Porsche Cup C6 Bank Mastercard at Interlagos
The second half of the 2023 Porsche Cup C6 Bank Mastercard sprint championship season kicked off this Friday with free practice at Interlagos and showed extreme competitiveness. At the end of the day, Marçal Muller, in the Carrera Cup, and Miguel Mariotti, in the Sprint Challenge, took the lead.
The fifth stage of the calendar marks the 200th race of the most produced competition cars on the planet at the main track in Brazil. And the dispute for pole promises to be intense when the track opens this Saturday, already for the qualifying training for the Carrera Cup.
Marçal's margin over Werner Neugebauer in free practice was less than a hundredth of a second. Farben pilot beat Mahrte pilot by 0.059. Immediately behind, in a very respectable third place which was his personal best at Interlagos, came Lineu Pires with the right to lead in the Sport class. The top5 was completed by Lucas Salles and the seven-time champion Miguel Paludo.
The fastest eight of the session were within a second of the leader and half of the field of 26 competitors was separated by the gap of just 1,214s.
For the Sprint Challenge the result was even tighter, with 12 of the 21 cars in the session within the same second. Mariotti took the lead in the final minutes, with a time of 1:39.455. Sadak Leite came immediately after, leading in the Sport class, with a disadvantage of 0.141. In eighth place, Celio Brasil led the Rookie class.
Saturday is the most intense day on the stage schedule, with qualifying in the morning and the first heats in the afternoon.
The fourth stage of the sprint championship will be broadcast live on Band and digital media from the Porsche Cup C6 Bank Mastercard.
What did they say
“Certainly free training is not worth that much, but we can already feel a little of the performance of each one. So leaving the free practice as the fastest was good, we have a good setup for the car and are confident for tomorrow.” Marçal Müller
“It was great, we were a little behind, but after the new tires I set a time I've never done here at Interlagos and tomorrow I think we can improve a little more.” Lineu Pires
“We had been suffering with the most worn out tires in the last stage, then we put new tires on and the time came, so we will continue the work to set the car up for tomorrow and of course that gives us an extra boost.” Bruno Campos
“I got a good lap at the end of practice and set up the car very well for this track. I have confidence up there. We're going in search of my first pole, God willing, and maybe the first victory. I'm very confident. We’re going with everything tomorrow for the qualifying.” Miguel Mariotti
“Tomorrow I hope to rank at least first in Sport, to recover the championship. I had a problem with the car in the last race, when I was already leading in Sport. But come on, I'm cheering. I think this weekend is going to be good. So far it's been good. I'm confident with the car, I'm driving well. I got so much better. I'm evolving well, I'm fine, satisfied.” milk sadak
“The greatest achievement was the evolution. Time, of course, is symbolic. It represents this evolution and it is very good when we manage to achieve a good result on the grid as well. But I am very pleased with the commitment of the entire team. That's what brings the result. I am very happy to have felt the car in my hand due to everyone's work. But there's still a weekend to go. Tomorrow is a new day, it starts all over again, but we come with greater confidence. Expectations are good. The job now is to start all over again tomorrow.” Célio Brazil