Sean Edwards extended his lead in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland standings with his maiden win in the series in very wet conditions at the Norisring. The Team Deutsche Post by tolimit driver became the sixth different winner from six races in 2011.
Martin Ragginger made a good start to take the lead at the start of the race from second on the grid. Nicki Thiim moved up from sixth to second, with Edwards in third. Polesitter Nick Tandy meanwhile dropped to fourth.
On lap five Edwards took the lead of the race from Ragginger at the Grundigkehre-hairpin. From there he retained his lead until the checkered flag. Rene Rast, fresh from his win at the Carrera World Cup, soon took second place from Ragginger at the same place. Rast looked set to finish second but was passed by Thiim on lap 31.
Behind Rast, fourth went to Jan Seyffarth. The SMS Motorsport driver started third on the grid but fell back as far as eighth before working his way back through to fourth. Tandy finished fifth ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen. Jaap van Lagen was seventh, with Norbert Siedler eighth and fellow Austrian Ragginger slipping to ninth. Kevin Estre finished tenth on his first start in the German series.
Edwards' win puts him 14 points clear of teammate Bleekemolen in the standings, with Tandy two points further behind in third.
“I got too much wheelspin at the start so I didn't get away well,” said Edwards. “But my teammate from last year, Sascha Maassen, shared a couple of tricks with me for the first corner and I profited from them. Martin Ragginger experienced traction problems, so it wasn't hard getting past him.
“For a while I feared that Réne was closing in. But he became caught up in a duel with Nicki Thiim and that gave me room to breath. With three races left on the calendar we're on top of the driver and team classifications – it doesn't get better than that.”
Thiim, who won at Lausitz, enjoyed his run to second place. “The race was great fun,” he said. “I fought with many drivers, that's the sort of racing I love. It proved difficult to get past René, but I did it in the end. If the race were only a couple of laps longer I might have overtaken Sean, too, but I didn't want to take that risk. Second place is tremendous.”
Rast seemed satisfied with third place. “My start was average and I lost a couple of positions, but I made them up again. Sean took off at the front and managed to distance himself a bit. Towards the end of the race, Nicki Thiim came shooting up from behind. We fought each other for some time but then I had to let him pass, he was simply too fast. Third place was the maximum I could manage today, so I'm okay with that.”
The next round of the championship takes place at the Grand Prix circuit at the Nurburgring on 7th August.
Race result
1. Sean Edwards (GB), Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, 33:49.075 minutes
2. Nicki Thiim (DK), Hermes Attempto Racing, + 1.507 seconds
3. René Rast (D), Förch Racing, + 3.370
4. Jan Seyffarth (D), SMS Seyffarth Motorsport, + 7.837
5. Nick Tandy (GB), Konrad Motorsport, + 13.255
6. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, + 14.876
7. Norbert Siedler (A), Aust Motorsport, + 18.132
8. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Land Motorsport, + 20.327
Driver classification after 6 of 9 races
1. Sean Edwards (GB), 98 points
2. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), 84
3. Nick Tandy (GB), 82
4. Nicki Thiim (DK), 59
5. Martin Ragginger (A), 59
5. Jaap van Lagen (NL), 56
7. René Rast (D), 54
Team classification after 6 of 9 races
1. Team Deutsche Post by tolimit, 154 points
2. Konrad Motorsport, 104
3. Hermes Attempto Racing, 64
