Marvin Klein has won the turbulent round seven of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in Zandvoort. For the Frenchman and his CLRT team, this marks the first victory in the international one-make cup with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Dylan Pereira came second on the Formula 1 circuit on the North Sea coast. With this, the Luxembourger extended his lead in the championship to 18 points and handed his BWT Lechner Racing an early victory in the team classification. The Supercup finale will be contested in Monza, Italy, next weekend.

Marvin Klein needed nerves of steel at round seven of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. Driving for the CLRT team, the Frenchman had to defend his lead position against tailgating pursuers three times: at the normal start and at two restarts after safety car phases. “That was tricky because the track was very slippery, especially with cold tyres,” he reported and revealed: “I concentrated on my line and avoided looking in the rear-view mirror as much as possible,” The tactic worked. After twelve laps, Klein crossed the finish line barely four-tenths of a second ahead of Morris Schuring. With this result, the reigning champion of the French Porsche Carrera Cup celebrated his first win in the international one-make cup with the ca. 375 kW (510 PS) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

However, Schuring’s joy for his second place was short-lived. At the start, he had failed to line his 911 up on the grid in the prescribed position. The stewards of the meeting handed him a five-second time penalty. As a result, the 17-year-old Dutchman from the Huber Racing squad was relegated far down the official race result list.

Points’ leader Dylan Pereira also experienced a rollercoaster of emotions at the penultimate race. The fastest qualifier was relegated to P4 due to a collision. After the first lap, he had dropped to eighth and became entangled in several battles for positions. However, he managed to finish third and subsequently inherited second place due to Morris Schuring’s penalty – the Luxembourger from the BWT Lechner Racing could not complain about a lack of variety. “My main focus throughout the race was on Larry ten Voorde. I wanted to finish right behind him,” said Pereira, describing his ongoing duel with the defending Supercup champion. “The fact that I managed to overtake Larry takes a heavy load off my shoulders for the finale in Monza.”

Ten Voorde, who is now 18 points shy of Pereira, was still happy with third place at his home race. “My start was perfect and I even overtook Dylan,” explained the local hero from the GP Elite team. “But I have to admit, my pace wasn’t enough to keep Dylan behind me over the race distance. Still, the main thing is that I was able to keep the title decision open until the final round next weekend.”

Ten Voorde has moved into second place in the overall rankings replacing Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich, who finished fifth in Zandvoort. “There wasn’t a lot I could do from P10 on the grid. The full course yellow phases shortened the race too much for me to progress further up the field,” declared the German SSR Huber Racing driver.

Denmark’s Bastian Buus finished between ten Voorde and Heinrich. The youngster from the BWT Lechner Racing squad won the rookie classification for the seventh time this season and thus secured an early title. “I was hoping to finish on the podium, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out today. Still, that doesn’t matter now,” said the 19-year-old, who already celebrated one overall victory this season.

Even before the 30th Supercup season comes to a close next weekend, BWT Lechner Racing has already claimed the team title – making it the twelfth title for the seasoned specialists from Austria. “We dreamed about it at the start of the season. Now I’m incredibly proud of my entire crew for turning this dream into reality,” said the delighted team boss Robert Lechner.

The title decision in the ProAm category, however, has been pushed to the finale. ProAm points’ leader Roar Lindland from Norway (Pierre Martinet by Alméras) only finished third in his class. Victory went to his UK teammate Aaron Mason. Interestingly, Mason didn’t even reach the flag due to an accident. This incident, however, caused the race to be red-flagged. In such situations, the result is determined by the order on the previous normal lap – and at that stage, Mason was still leading the ProAm class.

Even before Mason’s accident, the race had to be neutralised twice by the safety car. The first incident was caused by Englishman Harry King (BWT Lechner Racing) and local hero Jaap van Lagen (Martinet by Alméras) in the second lap. After taking up the race from second and third on the grid respectively, the two collided in a battle for second place, which threw both of them out of the race.

“Zandvoort once again lived up to its reputation of always providing extremely exciting and action-packed races. We put on a great show for the many fans,” commented Oliver Schwab, Project Manager of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. “Congratulations to BWT Lechner Racing and Bastian Buus on claiming an early title. Now I’m looking forward to the finale at Monza and the gripping battle for the drivers’ championship crown between Dylan Pereira, Larry ten Voorde and Laurin Heinrich.”

Parade of Formula 1 drivers with historic Porsche police cars
Right next to the Cup-911s, an entire fleet of historic Porsche – former Dutch motorway police cars – delighted fans in the Supercup paddock. The unique cabriolet and Targa models assembled by Porsche Nederland had a very special role at Zandvoort: at the official Formula 1 drivers’ parade.

Result race 7 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Zandvoort (NL)
1. Marvin Klein (France/CLRT), 23:57.458 minutes
2. Dylan Pereira (Luxembourg/BWT Lechner Racing), +0.740 seconds
3. Larry ten Voorde (Netherlands/Team GP Elite), +1.155 seconds
4. Bastian Buus (Denmark/BWT Lechner Racing), +2.652 seconds
5. Laurin Heinrich (Germany/SSR Huber Racing), +3.013 seconds

Points’ standings 2022 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup (after 7 of 8 races)
1. Dylan Pereira (L/BWT Lechner Racing), 137 points
2. Larry ten Voorde (NL/Team GP Elite), 119 points
3. Laurin Heinrich (D/SSR Huber Racing), 117 points
4. Bastian Buus (DK/BWT Lechner Racing), 97 points
5. Harry King (GB/BWT Lechner Racing), 92 points

Overall winner team classification: BWT Lechner Racing (Austria)
Overall winner rookie classification: Bastian Buus (DK, BWT Lechner Racing)

Full race results and championship standings:
https://motorsports.porsche.com/germany/de/category/mobil1supercup/pmsc-2022-results