Marçal Müller and Gaetano di Mauro were the winning duo of the Portugal stage of the Porsche Cup Endurance championship. This Sunday (12), they took advantage of the opportunities and had to hold off their rivals to be the first to cross the finish line.
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In the Carrera Sport class, the winners were Thiago Vivacqua and Carlos Campos, with Paulo Sousa and Dylan Pereira receiving the checkered flag first in the Rookie category.
Meanwhile, in the Challenge, Sadak Leite/Fabio Carbone were the winning duo, with Victor Mahle and Witold Ramasauskas triumphing in Sport and Nicholas Garfinkel and Victor Tieri in Rookie.
Learn how the Portugal stage of the Porsche Cup Endurance went:
The weather was not the only challenge for this long-distance race in Portimão. Just over 1 hour before the race start, rain hit the circuit, leaving the asphalt drying but still damp.
Despite the conditions, the competitors left the pits on slick tires. Two formation laps were given before the authorized start, but on the second lap the clock already started running.
The duo Marçal Müller/Gaetano di Mauro and Matheus Comparatto/Felipe Baptista shared the front row, with Müller/di Mauro on pole position in Carrera. In Challenge, Nicholas Garfinkel/Victor Tieri started from the honor position.
Finally, the start was authorized in Algarve and although the pole sitter maintained first place, there was an accident in the middle of the pack. Werner Neugebauer and Leonardo Herrmann collided, stopping on the track but avoiding collisions with other drivers. Later, Caio Castro also spun after contact from Leo Sanchez.
In fact, the race direction issued a drive-through penalty to Sanchez for overtaking while still under safety car conditions.
Marcos Regadas then began his climb, leaving Miguel Mariotti behind and taking third place. Now, he started chasing Comparatto – Marçal was already 2 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.
In the battle for sixth place, Miguel Paludo went inside Mariotti to leave his rival behind, but shortly after was repassed. Lineu Pires also joined the fight but was in seventh.
In the Carrera Rookie class, Pipo Massa started and climbed many positions to be seventh overall and first in class. In Sport, Lineu was leading.
Meanwhile, in Challenge, Garfinkel was in first place, but Sadak Leite was close behind trying to take the lead. Nicholas was also first in Sport, with Ramasaukas leading in Sport.
After eight laps completed in Portimão, Müller was in first place with a 2.1-second advantage over Comparatto, second. Regadas, Lucas Salles, and Mariotti completed the podium positions.
One point to note is the use of Boost buttons, which provide extra power for a brief period. Antonella Bassani, after starting 23rd, had already used four activations in 11 laps and was in 12th place.
On lap 16, the first pit window opened. Drivers had eight minutes to make their pit stops. Obviously, the drivers did not delay going to the pits for the first driver changes.
The cars were already starting to return to the track and in first place was now Gaetano di Mauro, Müller’s teammate. In second position was Felipe Drugovich, Regadas’ partner, with Rafael Suzuki in the top 3.
With the drivers already pushing in Algarve, the battles also started heating up again. Rafael Martins, Mariotti’s teammate, went side by side with Alan Hellmeister trying to take sixth place, making the pass but being repassed immediately after.
24 laps completed, almost 1 hour of racing done, Di Mauro was in first place, with Felipe Baptista, Drugovich, Suzuki, and Felipe Massa completing the podium positions – the ex-F1 driver also leads in Rookie. In the Sport class, Enrico Pedrosa was leading the pack.
In Challenge, Fabio Carbone led the field, with Enrico Pedrosa first in Sport and Victor Tieri leading in Rookie.
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The battle for first place was thrilling. Baptista put pressure on Di Mauro to take the lead, but the leader would not give up the position easily. The two were in a heated fight, with Gaetano managing to keep first place and placing Danilo Dirani’s car between them.
At the end of the first segment of the race, Di Mauro/Müller were the winning duo. Baptista/Comparatto finished second, with Drugovich/Regadas in third.
On lap 31 of the 65 scheduled for the race to finish, the second pit window opened. At this moment, Felipe managed to overtake Gaetano and become the race leader.
In a twist in the race, Felipe Massa, fifth overall and first in Rookie, had problems and had to stop on the track. This point could still bring out the safety car.
Competitors back on track and although Mariotti appeared first on the leaderboard, he was still in the pits, so Müller was the leader. Comparatto was second, with Regadas, Salles, and Paludo in the top 5.
On lap 35, a safety car was deployed on the track. Three laps later, green flag and the race restarted in Algarve.
Müller was in first place with a 0.868-second advantage over Comparatto, second. Regadas, Salles, and Alceu Feldmann Neto completed the top 5. Marco Pisani led in Rookie and Thiago Vivacqua in Sport.
Meanwhile, in the Challenge class, Luis Landi was in first place, with Fabio Carbone leading in Rookie and Garfinkel leading in Sport.
The fight for the overall lead was tightening. Regadas was getting closer and closer to Müller, being less than 0.5 seconds behind the race leader. Müller tried to defend, but it seemed they would soon meet on the track.
With more than 200km of the 300km scheduled for the race, Rouman Ziemkwicz got involved in an incident, spun, and got stuck in the gravel trap. Unable to get out on his own, a safety car was needed.
The story of the race began to change. Regadas, second place and closing in on the lead, would receive a 5-second penalty on the next stop for overtaking in a yellow flag sector.
At this moment, Marçal was the overall leader, with Gustavo Zanon first in Sport and Antonella Bassani in Rookie.
Lap 48, last pit window, and the drivers were once again in the pits for the final change.
Another twist in the race: the Porsche #118, of Comparatto and Felipe Baptista, would also receive a 5-second penalty on the next pit stop for overtaking under yellow flag. Things seemed to be smiling in favor of Müller and Di Mauro.
The race had been delivering a series of great moments and twists. When leaving the pits, Di Mauro had contact with Silvio Morestoni still in the pit lane.
53 laps done, with just over ten to the checkered flag, and Di Mauro was in first place, with Felipe Baptista the virtual second place.
A stroke of bad luck for Sergio Ramalho. Third overall and first in Carrera Sport, with two laps to go, he had suspension problems and had to retire, stopping at a critical point on the circuit.
Checkered flag and Müller/Di Mauro win the race. Comparatto/Baptista are second, with Thiago Vivacqua/Carlos Campos, Marcos Gomes/Sebá Malucelli, and Dylan Pereira/Paulo Sousa completing the podium.
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