Michael Ammermüller was the only driver who returned to the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup paddock with no damage on Sunday morning, after a frantic and at times rowdy opening round at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Lechner Racing Middle East man led from lights out to flag fall and negotiated an opening lap safety car with serenity. The intervention was required after Sven Müller tangled with Connor de Phillippi (VERVA Lechner Racing Team) and then found himself the orchestrator of his own demise, in this case one beached car.
Despite attempting, inadvertently, to ruin his teammate’s chances Müller need not worry about how Ammermüller would deal with the scenario. He simply romped off to victory, ominously commenting, “Pole position and a victory after a flawless weekend, it can continue like this”.
Kuba Giermaziak, teammate to de Philippi, put in a mature performance to finish second after annexing the position from French Carrera Cup champion Côme Ledogar (Martinet by Alméras).
Much of the drama from this most spectacular of encounters, focussed on the Frenchman. Driving overtly defensively, he held up the pack, generating a tremendous amount of wheel to wheel racing.
Christian Engelhart (MRS GT-Racing) would eventually usurp Ledogar, who fell to sixth after dicing with Philipp Eng (Team Project 1) and Alex Riberas (The Heart of Racing by Lechner). Eng’s teammate and Porsche Junior Matteo Cairoli was involved in early dramas and scrambled to the finish fourteenth.
Ben Barker and Cameron Twynham from the MOMO-Megatron Team PARTRAX operation made gains after difficult qualifying sessions, with the more experienced Barker a respectable ninth and Twynham narrowly missing out on the top ten in twelfth.
Ammermüller and co now head for Monte Carlo, a track notorious for producing incident if not the greatest racing. Yet the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup has never been a series synonymous with terrific dicing either. Barcelona was a shock to the system and this author for one hopes the newfound aggression and tussling continues for the duration of the season.
