Marçal Müller and Gaetano di Mauro start from pole position in the Endurance stage of the Porsche Cup in Portugal. In the classification this Saturday (11), the Porsche #544 duo averaged 1min46s2 to take the honor position on the grid in the Carrera class.
Read more Porsche Cup: Müller/Di Mauro talks about a «good start» after securing pole in Endurance
In the Sport class, the duo Lineu Pires and Beto Gresse start from the front of the pack.
For the Carrera classification, the weather was steady, slightly overcast and warm in Portimão. The thermometer was at 24ºC, the track reached 30ºC and humidity was around 51%, with the wind blowing at 6 km/h.
The first group was released to the track and the first of the two drivers of each car to record the first times, they from the Rookie class. After the first laps completed, José Moura Neto had the best time with 1min47s417 to be first, with Pipo Massa in second place with 1min48s149.
Moura Netto was first, with Pipo, Marco Pisani, Bruno Campos and Wagner Pontes completing the top five positions.
After the first phase ended, the competitor of Porsche #45 finished as the fastest, now waiting for Matheus Iorio to complete his lap to calculate the average times of the competitors.
After the end of the first batch of the Rookie class, now it was time for all from Carrera and Sport to go to the track. In the first moments, Miguel Paludo stopped on the track waiting for the best moment, soon resuming speed.
First times started to appear on the table and Miguel Mariotti was the first to ‘intervene’ among the competitors by placing himself in sixth overall position.
Marçal Müller, however, soon hit and took the lead with Porsche #544 with a time of 1min46s7, with Lucas Salles, Mariotti, Moura Neto and Lineu Pires completing the top five overall positions.
After the first of the two phases of classification ended, Marçal was in the lead with 1min46s549, the only one below 1min47s. Salles, Mariotti, Moura Neto and Pires completed the top-5 of the time trial.
Read more Porsche Cup: Garfinkel/Tieri takes pole in the Endurance Challenge in Portugal
Stopwatch started and the second phase began to calculate the average times to define the starting positions in Algarve. The drivers did not take long to leave the pits and start their laps.
For the most part of this second part, the first reserved to make tire warm-up laps, reserving only the final stretch for their attack laps.
Then, Gabriel Robe made the first ‘cut-off line’ by turning 1min46s5, being the first of this group – now, his time would be added to that of his partner Eric Santos to calculate the average.
With 1min46s441, Renan Guerra took the first position in the Rookie class. Not for long, Robe retook the lead with 1min46s1.
Dylan Pereira, who led the optional and official practice sessions with Paulo Sousa, was the first to break the 1min45s barrier, jumping to the first position on the table and setting the new track record of the Algarve for the Porsche Cup Brazil.
The last part of the classification was released with the drivers from the general Carrera and Sport. Names like Gaetano di Mauro, Lucas di Grassi, Felipe Drugovich, Ramos, Alan Hellmeister were accelerating at this moment.
Rafael Suzuki then placed himself in third overall position on the table and in the average times with Salles, holding the provisional pole of the Carrera class.
Nelson Piquet Jr then made a sufficient lap not only to place himself in second overall position but also to take the provisional pole-position of the Carrera Sport.
The time trial of the Endurance stage of the Porsche Cup in Portugal ended and in the average times, Müller/Di Mauro was unbeatable to secure pole position for the race. Marçal did 1min46s549, Gaetano did 1min46s044 which, on average, was 1min46s296.
Read more Porsche Cup: Garfinkel/Tieri praise pole in Challenge and highlight «absurd fun»
