Porsche Cup Brazil reaches its Sprint Championship halfway point before over 20.000 people in Interlagos
Interlagos grand stands were full and hospitality areas were packed during Porsche Cup Brazil third Sprint Championship round and all five races proved to bring the action expected by more than 20 thousand fans.
Former DTM Trophy racer Thiago Vivacqua scored his maiden pole position in Carrera Cup and converted into his first win after early laps battle with Christian Hahn. Championship top contenders Marcal Muller, Miguel Paludo and Werner Neugebauer completed the podium. Lineu Pires won Sports division after leading all laps and Marcos Regadas won his first ever race in Rookie division climbing from P27 to P12 overall.
With 30 a field of 30 cars, Carrera Cup had its biggest grid ever in Brazil.
Sunday grid-inverted race was the best so far this year, with a fierce battle between Neugebauer, Paludo and Muller. The later unfortunately was collected as collateral damage of a mistaken charge from Alceu Feldmann over Hahn. Neugebauer won his 3rd Sunday race in as many race weekends so far and claimed the points lead from Muller. P2 in the race, Paludo is third in points. Vivacqua finished third, ahead of Lineu Pires and Marcos Regadas, who once more took their wins in Sports and Rookie classes.
Points leader Miguel Mariotti once more scored Challenge class pole-position. He briefly lost the lead to Leonardo Herrmann on the start, but passed the contestant back and took it to the end. Sadak Leite finished third, ahead of champion Antonella Bassani (who climbed up the field after starting P11) and Celio Brasil. Herrmann won the Sport division as 16-years old Caio Chaves passed Wagner Pontes on the last corner to win once more the Rookie division.
Sunday race had Antonella scoring her maiden Interlagos win, as the result of a superb jump on the start, from third to the lead. The race had several incidents, including one during a saftey-car intervention.
Celio Brasil took the flag behind Antonella, winning Sport division. Matheus Roque, Herrmann and Sebá Malucelli rounded up the top5. Chaves once more won Rookie class, extending his record to 5 out of 6 class wins so far.
Trophy race win was taken by Gabriel Liber, as pole-sitter Silvio Morestoni had a late race incident touching the inside wall in Senna’s S while on lead. He fell to third, behind Jose Moura Neto. Pro skater and former olympian Leticia Bufoni started P3 and finished one position behind, claiming her first ever podium in race cars.
After all races were done on Saturday night, a packed hospitality area witnessed a concert by Brazilian star singer Samuel Rosa.
Porsche Cup Brazil next round is scheduled to Estoril, in back-to-back weekends in June. The Endurance Series Championship will have its opener round in the penultimate weekend, as the Sprint Championship second half will start on the next one.