Heading in to second race of the Norisring weekend Nicki Thiim had already out-performed his fellow Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland racers by taking two pole positions and a victory in race six, this time though he wouldn’t have it easy.
As the lights went out it was the second placed car of Porsche Junior Matteo Cairoli that rocketed off the start line; Thiim and Cairoli would go door-to-door as they headed in to the first corner, it would however be the experienced Thiim who would take the upper hand to lead through turn 1. The 19-year-old reigning Porsche Carrera Cup Italia champion would push from second place throughout the race but on lap eleven his Porsche Junior compatriot Sven Müller would start to pile on the pressure from behind, eventually forcing a mistake that would see Cairoli slip down to seventh place after a brief off-track excursion on lap 25. “I made a slight mistake and found myself on the dirty side of the track.” explained Cairoli after the race.
Thiim took advantage of the chaos ensuing behind him to open up a gap at the from of the race while Müller and Philipp Eng fought for second and third place over the last five laps. “That was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever contested,” said Müller. “But ultimately it was a fight at the highest level and I’m very pleased with position two.”
Defending champion Eng added: “I can look back on a successful weekend. Two podium spots and as a result I’ve extended my points lead. On the Norisring we sometimes come within millimetres of the wall and the main thing is to get your car to the flag in one piece.”
An exstatic Thiim would take victory before leaping out of the car with his arms held high, clearly delighted with his weekend’s efforts he said “There’s nothing better than two victories! It’s a fantastic feeling for me and the entire team. They’ve worked really hard for this.”
Christian Engelhart would finish the race as best of the non-podium finishers with fourth place ahead of Jeffrey Schmidt and the recovering Cairoli in sixth place. Michael Ammermüller took ninth place while Christopher Zöchling finished in eighth place ahead of Porsche Junior Connor de Phillippi, “The competition in the German Carrera Cup is extremely tough and things didn’t quite pan out as we’d wanted. Now we’ll do some testing and see where we can make improvements,” said Phillippi following the race. Alex Riberas rounded out the top 10.
The Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland series heads to the Netherlands for the next stop on the 2015 championship calendar when the battle resumes at Zandvoort on 10-12 July.
2015 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland Race 7 top 10:
- Nicki Thiim (DK/KÜS Team 75 Bernhard)
- Sven Müller (D/Lechner Racing Middle East)
- Philipp Eng (A/Team Deutsche Post by Project 1)
- Christian Engelhart (D/TECE MRS-Racing), 45 Punkte
- Jeffrey Schmidt (CH/Lechner Racing Middle East)
- Matteo Cairoli (I/Team Deutsche Post by Project 1)
- Michael Ammermüller (D/The Heart of Racing by Lechner)
- Christopher Zöchling (A/Konrad Motorsport)
- Connor de Phillippi (USA/Land-Motorsport)
- Alex Riberas (E/The Heart of Racing by Lechner)
Points’ standings after 7 of 17 races
Driver classification
- Philipp Eng (A/Team Deutsche Post by Project 1), 114 points
- Jeffrey Schmidt (CH/Lechner Racing Middle East), 90 points
- Christian Engelhart (D/TECE MRS-Racing), 85 points
- Nicki Thiim (DK/KÜS Team 75 Bernhard), 78 points
- Alex Riberas (E/The Heart of Racing by Lechner), 78 points
Rookie classification
- Richard Charles Goddard (AUS/TECE MRS-Racing), 9 points
- Pepe Massot (E/KÜS Team 75 Bernhard), 7 points
- Alexander Toril (E/Market Leader Team by Project 1), 3 points
- Maximilian Hackl (D/Aust Motorsport), 1 points
Amateur classification
- Wolf Nathan (NL/Land-Motorsport), 122 points
- Rolf Ineichen (CH/Konrad Motorsport), 120 points
- Ralf Bohn (D/Herberth Motorsport), 86 points
- Ronald van de Laar (NL/Konrad Motorsport), 28 points
Team classification
- Team Deutsche Post by Project 1, 156 points
- Lechner Racing Middle East, 156 points
- The Heart of Racing by Lechner, 153 points
