This Sunday Matheus Comparatto and Felipe Baptista took Shell to the podium of the Algarve stage of the Porsche Cup Endurance. The duo of car #118 fought for the victory on the Portuguese track and received the checkered flag in second position.
The result places the Shell car as one of the contenders for the title of the long-distance racing championship in the category. In 2025 Matheus Comparatto was the runner-up of the competition.
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With a wet track, Comparatto started from second position on the grid and the start of the race was under safety car conditions. At the beginning of the third lap the green flag was waved and the driver of car #118 maintained his position.
Matheus Comparatto set a consistent pace and recorded the best lap of the race on two occasions. On the 16th lap the Shell driver made the first mandatory stop and Felipe Baptista took over the car.
The driver who competes in the regular Stock Car season set a good pace and reduced the gap to the leader to less than a second. Subsequently, the driver of car #118 was hindered by backmarkers and on the 25th lap the gap to the leader was close to two seconds.
The first segment ended on the 30th lap and the duo finished in second position. Two laps later Baptista made a great move at turn 3 and took the lead of the race, then the driver went to the pits for the second mandatory stop.
Matheus Comparatto returned to the track in second place and on lap 37 the safety car was deployed to remove a car that was in the escape area. Two laps later the restart happened and Comparatto maintained second position.
The race continued with a lot of balance and on the 41st lap car #118 was in third position. Comparatto regained second place on the 48th lap, when the restart occurred after another safety car intervention.
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Subsequently, the Shell driver went to the pits but needed to serve a five-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flag. Felipe Baptista returned to the track in seventh position, in the following laps the driver gained ground and took third place.
With only four laps remaining in the race, Felipe Baptista made a great move to take second position. After 65 laps and 300 kilometers completed Baptista received the checkered flag in second position.
Shell’s next commitment in the Porsche Cup takes place in the sprint championship, on September 5 and 6, at Interlagos.
What he said:
“It was a very good weekend, Felipe Baptista and I managed to have a good performance from qualifying to the race. Today we had a good start and I think our pace was very similar to that of the winning car, but we had some bad luck. Anyway, I am very happy because second place puts us in the fight for the Endurance title and I am sure we will compete until the last stage.”
Matheus Comparatto
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