Thiago Vivacqua wins for the first time in the Porsche Cup C6 Bank at Interlagos
Interlagos once again hosted an exciting round of the Porsche Cup C6 Bank. In the Carrera Cup, Rio de Janeiro's Thiago Vivacqua entered the event's 20-year history by being the hundredth different pole. Then he won for the first time, after a duel with Cristian Hahn in the opening laps. Marçal Muller was third in his 100th race and remains in the lead of the championship thanks to a very solid season. Miguel Paludo and Werner Neugebauer completed the podium.
Carrera Cup
On the first start attempt, the peloton was out of alignment, so the race direction determined one more lap under a yellow flag regime (although the 25-minute regression was started).
Pole-sitter Thiago Vivacqua held up the inside line well on the first leg of the S, while Christian Hahn paired up and had the best trajectory to take the lead on the second leg. Marçal Muller jumped to third and Miguel Paludo to fourth. Lineu Pires closed the first lap in fifth, leading in Sport. The loss of the first lap was on Werner Neugebauer, who started in third place and crossed Senna's S, falling to eighth place. For Rookie, the lead was held by Leo Sanchez, in 17th overall.
Vivacqua tried twice to attack Hahn on the fourth lap, but the #26 got in the middle of the track on Senna's S and took the gap from the competitor on the opposite straight. On the fifth lap, Vivacqua attacked from the outside at Senna's S outlet and the maneuver had an effect on the pole position to regain the lead. Marçal Muller tried to keep up and the two came side by side until the Laranjinha take, where Hahn prevailed.
Marçal's fight with Hahn favored Vivacqua in the lead and, in one lap, the carioca had more than 1.2s margin over the #26. Paludo was trying to keep up with Muller, while Pires, in fifth, held the lead in Sport. The lead in Rookie was held by Marcos Regadas, in 16th.
On lap 7, the safety car was activated after contact between cars #3 and #29 left Rodrigo Mello aside. He ended up being picked up by Pedro Aguiar and had his suspension broken, unable to take his car to safety.
The restart came on the next lap. Vivacqua freed space from Hahn and the latter from Marçal. The #544 was attacked by Miguel Paludo and the two Gauchos were side by side for the entire first stretch.
But the battle was soon interrupted by another safety car intervention, after a collision involving multiple cars in Senna's S at the restart.
The restart came on lap 12, for a two-lap sprint. Hahn took a slam shut on the first leg of the S and Marçal neutralized Paludo's harassment this time. But Werner attacked and passed Pires, to be fifth.
The top 5 remained unchanged until the flag, for another winner in the 20-year history of the category, Thiago Vivacqua. Hahn was second. Championship leader Muller was third, with Paludo fourth and Werner fifth. Pires won in Sport with sixth place overall. The Rookie victory went to Regadas, crossing the finish line in 12th, after starting 27th in his first race in the category.
Challenge Race
Pole-sitter Miguel Mariotti lost the position to Leonardo Herrmann at the start, while Gerson Campos also got off to a good start to be third. Then Marco Tulio rode on the Lake and was collected by Lucas Locatelli. Further ahead, Mariotti got back at Herrmann at Laranjinha, while contact between Cristian Mohr and Campos made the #82 car run at Bico de Pato. The safety car was deployed.
The restart came with Mariotti in the lead, followed by Herrmann (leading in Sport), Matheus Roque, Sebá Malucelli and Celio Brasil. In ninth, Claudio Simão led in the Rookie.
Mariotti held the lead on the restart and was soon under attack from Hermann. Caio Castro entered the top 5, passing Celio Brasil and Sebá Malucelli (the latter, with slight contact between the cars) and was fighting with Sadak Leite. Antonella Bassani, on the other hand, was on a formidable climb after starting from 11th.
On lap 8, Caio Castro moved up to fourth after passing Roque. He was attacked by Antonella on Senna's S, but defended well. Until the champion performed the maneuver in Laranjinha.
Mariotti was trying to go beyond 1s ahead of Herrmann in the final 10 minutes, but the rookie was fast on the straights. Sadak Leite was third with relative ease, while Caio Castro was attacked by Antonella for fourth. In 11th, Wagner Pontes was leading in the Rookie.
On lap 11, Herrmann escaped in the Dive, giving Mariotti the refreshment he needed at the helm of the pack, but resumed the trajectory in second place. Sadak Leite perked up, closing the gap to the Sport leader. And Antonella continued to attack Caio Castro for fourth place. She managed to overtake on the next pass, at the Lake brake, after sharing the Opposite straight with the #22 car.
To make the #22's day worse, a 10s penalty was announced to him for contact with the #100 earlier in the race.
In the final laps, Herrmann managed to close in on Mariotti, accompanied by Sadak 1s away. Antonella was fourth, with Caio Castro in fifth. In 11th, Pontes remained in the lead of the Rookie.
Mariotti won for the third time in five races this year and completed victories at every track in 2024. Herrmann won in Sport with second place overall. Sadak was third and Antonella fourth. Celio Brasil completed the overall podium in fifth.
On the last lap, Caio Chaves took advantage of Wagner Pontes' escape and won the Rookie race once again.
Quotes
"It was a race with maturity. I lost the position on the first lap but I didn't panic. I knew I had new tyres, I didn't know Hahn's strategy, but I knew I had the potential to go for it. Of course, he defended very well and gave some heat, but it was possible to pass and regain the lead. It's an achievement of mine at the Interlagos racetrack and we'll try to get it again tomorrow." Thiago Vivacqua
"It was a very difficult race here at Interlagos, carrying 50 kilos of ballast. We started with the qualifying tyre, it wasn't new. So, in the first few laps, we had to hold the pressure a lot, I even had an overtake in the first corner, but I managed to recover. Then I kept the lead and a very strong pace until the end. There are three wins in five races, a good regularity. I didn't expect this even in my wildest dreams. I have to thank the team, the fans, my sponsors." Miguel Mariotti
"It was a very good race. We qualified third and, because of a penalty to the championship leader, we ended up starting second. I was able to jump to the first position at the start, but unfortunately, due to a problem I had on the warm-up laps, they didn't warm up the way we needed them to. Their pressure turned out to be very wrong. I had to deal with it. In the end, we relied on luck. The safety car helped me a lot." Christian Hahn
"Saturday started very well, especially with qualifying, fighting for P1 with 50kg in the ballast car. But unfortunately an unfair penalty in my opinion, they took me out of Q2 for an incident in Q1, which doesn't make sense. Still we saved a P3, which is a very good result for our year and so far our worst result. That keeps us at the top of the championship, despite the worst result of the year, it's still a great result." Marçal Muller
"It was really good. A pretty cool race. The safety car got in the way a little bit, but the result was good. We had been looking for this victory and I'm happy after abandoning both in the last stage because of third-party incidents" Lineu Pires
"I don't think it could be better. We leave here with the victory. Everybody worked all week for it, that was the goal. Training doesn't win a race. So it was really good. I hope that tomorrow we have a good car to have a good pace, because Israel Salmen was right behind me. So I'm not feeling slack, even though I'm in a good position. There's no one between me and him, and then it gets more dangerous. But I'm excited, learning a lot. I had never ridden in the car before. Of course, the more we walk, the more we learn. And I think we can evolve a lot." Marcos Regadas
"I managed to make a good start, but then I ended up making a mistake at Laranjinha. Miguel (Mariotti) came on the inside and overtook it. All credit to him. In the end, I was coming, but I made some mistakes. But I'm very happy with this first win at Sport. It's great to have this crowd here at Interlagos." Leonardo Hermann
"What a race! It was the most exciting race I've ever had at Porsche. I tried to move forward at the start, but I had some problems. I went to my room, picked them up one by one, calmly. But Wagner (Pontes), the first place, was a little distant. But I was patient, calm, and I went all out on the last lap. And it worked. It couldn't be better. After Velocitta and the second free practice at Interlagos, I was a bit unsure of the pace. But I won again, I rode well. And I'm very confident to get a good result tomorrow." Caio Chaves
"It was crazy. Unfortunately, at the start, I received a touch that hampered my race a bit. At least it didn't cause any damage to the car. I was able to do my best on the track, I did the fastest lap of the race. So I showed that I have the potential to win tomorrow's race. I'm going to come very strong, up, with a zero tyre. It's focusing like today, repeating the same thing I did. Hopefully it will be a calmer race. Today's was hotly contested, all the time. It was crazy. I don't think I've ever raced like that in the Porsche Cup, so I was very happy. All disputes were cleared. For tomorrow, the idea is to win." Antonella Bassani
"It was pretty cool. With a new tyre, everything changes. Everything we had agreed on in training worked. It was a well-fitting lap, so we were able to do what we could. It was great. Too happy." Silvio Morestoni
Results
Carrera Cup
1. #10. Thiago Vivacqua 27:32.022
2. #26. Christian Hahn +0.423
3. #544. Marçal Muller +0.884
4. #7. Miguel Paludo +1.947
5. #8. Werner Neugebauer +2.125
6. #888. Lineu Pires (S) +3.640
7. #56. Peter Ferter (S) +3.863
8. #1. Alceu Feldmann +5.197
9. #70. Lucas Salles +5.198
10. #3. Franco Giaffone +5.471
11. #199. Nelson Marcondes (S) +6.141
12. #17. Marcos Regadas (R) +6.912
13. #14. Carlos Campos (S) +8.030
14. #87. Nelson Monteiro (S) +8.220
15. #15. Leonardo Sanchez (R) +8.565
16. #24. Gustavo Zanon (R) +9.005
17. #33. Bruno Campos (R) +9.302
18. #121. João Barbosa (R) +10.477
19. #12. Marco Pisani (R) +12.189
20. #84. Gustavo Farah (R) +12.202
21. #60. Ramon Alcaraz (R) +13.143
22. #9. Edu Guedes (R) +14.020
23. #85. Eduardo Menossi (R) +15.674
24. #74. Piero Cifali (R) +16.000
25. #80. Rouman Ziemkiewicz (S) -2 laps
DNF
#77. Francisco Horta (S)
#27. Josimar Junior (S)
#20. Pedro Aguiar
#29. Rodrigo Mello
#51. Israel Salmen (R) (S)
Sport / (R) Rookie
Sprint Challenge
1. #21. Michael Mariotti 27:39.051
2. #23. Leonardo Herrmann (S) +0.802
3. #66. Sadak Leite +2.128
4. #72. Antonella Bassani +4.303
5. #139. Celio Brasil (S) +11.082
6. #32. Matheus Roque (S) +11.490
7. #100. Seba Malucelli (S) +11.839
8. #71. SangHo Kim (S) +13.232
9. #44. Giuliano Bertuccelli (S) +15.630
10. #22. Caio Castro +20.056
11. #54. Caio Chaves (R) +21.527
12. #82. Gerson Campos +22.325
13. #99. Wagner Pontes (R) +27.414
14. #7. Luiz Souza (S) +41.533
15. #45. Paulo Totaro (R) +46.528
16. #38. Eric Santos (R) +48.113
17. #9. Claudio Reina (R) +1:12.532
DNF
#1. Alceu Feldmann Neto (R)
#58. Claudio Simão (R)
#3. Cristian Mohr
#55. Marco Tulio (S)
#177. Lucas Locatelli (R) (S)
Sport / (R) Rookie
Sprint Trophy
1. #8. Silvio Morestoni 1:43.067
2. #14. Gabriel Liber +0.956
3. #13. Leticia Bufoni +1.551
4. #121. Denis Ferrer +1.936
5. #33. William Araujo +2.045
6. #777. Lucas Lucco +2.404
7. #7. André Cytrynbaum (S) +2.582
8. #45. José Moura Neto +2.730
9. #129 Fernando Arruda (S) +2.766
10. #1. Gustavo Costa (S) +2.947
11. #18. Ricardo Zylberman (S) +3.048
12. #77. Vitor Marques (S) +3.513
13. #22. Heverton Cardoso (S) +3.965
14. #331. Neto Heil (S) +4.630
15. #12. Marcelo Seiroz (S) +7.103
16. #11. Thiago Rios (S) +8.304
(S) Sport
Porsche Cup C6 Bank – Stage 3 – Interlagos:
Sunday, April 28:
09:00 – 09:29 – Race (20 minutes + 1 lap) – Sprint Trophy
12:28 – 12:58 – Race 2 (25 minutes + 1 lap) – Carrera Cup
13:03 – 13:37 – Race 2 (25 minutes + 1 lap) – Sprint Challenge