Matt Campbell was untouchable in the penultimate race of the 2017 Porsche Mobil1 Supercup race of the season as he commanded the race from the front, despite two safety car periods closing down his advantage. Championship leader Michael Ammermüller extended his lead to 5 points ahead of Dennis Olsen.
As the field pulled away from the grid, it was pole sitter Olsen who looked to have the advantage, but a drag race down the long start and finish straight to the first corner provided Campbell with the opportunity to overtake in to the first corner. Olsen would also lose out to championship rival Ammermüller on the opening lap as he was forced to settle for third place.
By lap six, Campbell was 4.2-seconds in the lead, unfortunately for the Porsche Junior his work was about to come undone as the safety car came out to retrieve Florian Latorre‘s stricken Porsche after he collided with Robert Lukas. Despite the field closing up and a second safety car period to clear B-Class frontrunner Roar Lindland‘s car, Campbell had done enough to take victory.
Behind Campbell Olsen was trying his best to get around championship leader Ammermüller, although he got extremely close at times, the German managed to do just enough to fend off the advances.
Dan Cammish sat just behind the battle for second and third place, waiting to pick up the pieces, and at times looked like he could have been on the podium, although in the closing stages of the race the Brit was forced to defend from the new Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer as he put in an impressive performance.
Credit: Porsche AG.
While the drivers championship battle will go down to the wire with the result, Ammermüller’s second place and Cammish’s fourth was enough to secure the team title for Lechner MSG Racing Team.
Porsche Junior Thomas Preining fought hard to claim sixth place on the last lap after losing his splitter in an early battle. 2014 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Josh Webster took seventh place ahead of Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen; Ryan Cullen and Philip Morin rounded out the top ten.
Tom Sharp had been on an impressive run through the field after starting twenty-third, the British driver had worked his way up to twelfth before a drive shaft gave way, just three laps from the end of the race.
The championship battle now heads in to the final race, Ammermüller leads the way on 175 points with Olsen five points behind. Campbell is heading the battle for third place with 131 points, Cammish will be looking to finish ahead of Campbell as he is just 9 points behind.
“I managed to extend my championship lead over Dennis [Olsen] in this race. That’s good. I’ll do everything I can on Sunday to stay ahead of him. Interestingly, the grid positions for tomorrow’s race are the same as our results today. Ultimately, only one thing matters for me and that’s the title,” said Ammermüller.
“Even though my race didn’t go perfectly, I’m ready to fight at the finale. I’m taking up Sunday’s race from third on the grid and I’ll attack from the first second to keep my title chances alive,” added Olsen.
British driver Mark Radcliffe was the top finisher of the B-Class runners ahead of Ricardo Pérez and Glauco Colieri. Egidio Perfetti leads the championship by just four points over Roland Bervillé .
