After dominating a wet qualifying session at Donington Park, Tio Ellinas lined up on pole position for the first time with Dan Harper and Dino Zamparelli in second and third. With a damp track and cool weather, all 23 drivers started the race on grooved wet weather tyres.
As the lights turned green it was Zamparelli that made the most of the start, challenging for the lead in to Redgate. Ellinas dropped back in to second place as Lewis Plato moved up in to the lead.
Tom Wrigley jumped up to fourth place as he passed Dan Vaughan and Dan Harper. Despite Vaughan losing overall places, he held on to the Pro Am lead, while further back Peter Mangion led the Am field.
Four laps in and Ellinas bounced back in to the lead, jumping Plato into Coppice, Zamparelli would move up to second two laps later with a move into Redgate.
Harper was also on the move as he also challenged in to Redgate, passing Tom Wrigley for fourth place.
Pro Am frontrunners Vaughan and Seb Perez occupied sixth and seventh overall, with Justin Sherwood third in class.
Credit: Porsche
Lap nine saw drama further down the grid as Am frontrunners Iain Dockerill, Shamus Jennings and Gary Eastwood argued over the track heading through Redgate; Dockerill and Jennings ended up off track and while they both continued, Jennings would retire in the pits.
As the laps counted down Zamparelli closed the gap to Ellinas, reducing the previous gap of three seconds down to just seven tenths of a second as they swapped fastest lap times.
A move on lap sixteen saw rookie David Shaw pass Mangion for the lead of the Am class, while Harper took third place from Plato at the front of the race.
Despite the pressure from Zamparelli, Ellinas would hold on to the lead and take the chequered flag to claim his maiden victory in Carrera Cup GB.
In Pro Am, Vaughan took the win, ahead of Jamie Orton and Rory Collingbourne. In Am, Shaw took the win with Peter Kyle-Henney and Eastwood in second and third.
Credit: Porsche
Mangion was set to take third place in the Am class but a collision with race winner Ellinas entering Redgate saw Mangion’s race end in the gravel trap, for his part in the accident, Ellinas was docked three championship points.
Following the podium, race winner Ellinas drew the number five ball at random, meaning the top five placed cars of the race would see their positions reversed at the head of the field with Plato and Wrigley lining up on the front row of the grid.
