Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer took a commanding second victory of the 2019 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season as he dominated the race from the opening lap at the Red Bull Ring, leading home a Lechner Racing one-two finish at their home circuit.
With the air temperature 32°C before the start of the race it was always going to be a gruelling effort needed to succeed.
Andlauer lined up on the grid with Larry ten Voorde alongside him on the front row, a revitalised Dylan Pereira and championship leader Michael Ammermüller occupied the second row.
First lap drama at the Red Bull Ring
As the five red lights went out the Porsche’s roared away from the grid in a drag race up to the first corner, despite starting in second place ten Voorde had the advantage heading in to the first corner as he went for the gap on the inside of Andlauer.
It wouldn’t be long before Andlauer fought back, lining up a move at the tight right-hand corner of Remus, claiming the lead of the race back.
While Andlauer made the move for the lead Pereira and Ammermüller collided, the Luxembourger’s car was thrown in to the air, losing five places as the field scrambled to make advantage of the situation.
Further back Ayhancan Güven was caught up in an incident with Igor Walilko in a similar accident, unfortunately for the Turkish driver he wouldn’t be so lucky to recover as damage to his suspension put him out of the race by the next corner.
Ten Voorde wasn’t quite ready for Andlauer to walk away with the lead as the pair battled side-by-side down to the right-hand corner of Schlossgold, the Frenchman had the advantage of the inside line and ten Voorde was forced to the outside of the corner; From that point onwards Andlauer was in control and never looked back.
With Andlauer now out front, Ammermüller had set his sights on second place with the reigning champion closing in on ten Voorde. On lap four the German would briefly lose out to Jaap van Lagen who was sitting in fourth place, watching the battle emerge in front of him. Ammermüller made a small mistake and van Lagen was there to snipe the position; it wouldn’t last long as the Lechner Racing driver regained the position on the next lap.
Over the next couple of laps Ammermüller pushed on, closing in on the rear of ten Voorde’s car, following closely up the hill before forcing the Dutchman to make a small mistake, leaving an opening on the inside of the Remus right hander. Now alongside, it was a drag race to Schlossgold where Ammermüller had the inside line, making the move stick, and pulling away on the next lap.
Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Simmernauer was hussled out of place after colliding with Gianmarco Quaresmini, the rookie driver losing four position as a result of the incident.
Ammermüller drops the hammer
Andlauer was in full control of the race by this point, despite Ammermüller setting fastest lap times as he tried to chase his team-mate down.
For the second time in the race weekend, the DRS board after the final corner was eliminated by a Porsche, this time by Leon Köhler as he run wide, taking the foam sign for a journey down the front straight.
With the drivers in podium positions sitting comfortably the battle for fourth place raged on as a four car train of van Lagen, Mikkel O.Pedersen, Florian Latorre and Periera raced bumper to bumper.
Van Lagen would be the first of the drivers to break away, before O.Pedersen got his break as Periera put a move on Latorre, briefly taking sixth place before locking up at Würth corner, handing the Frenchman the place back as he ran wide on the circuit.
Marvin Klein drove a strong race to take eighth place overall and be the best placed rookie.
After making up four places in the opening laps, Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans had a pretty anonymous time in the remainder of the race to finish in ninth place.
“After the disappointing qualifying, this was an important step forward. The conditions with this heat were unusual and a real challenge,” said the 22-year-old.
In the closing laps Tio Ellinas was doing his best to make up lost ground following a poor qualifying, the 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion managed to make it through in to the top ten from fourteenth on the grid as he demoted Al Faisal Al Zubair to eleventh place.
Perfect weekend for Andlauer
Andlauer crossed the finish line with an advantage of nearly five seconds over his team-mate Ammermüller and a further second over ten Voorde.
“Fastest in free practice, pole position in qualifying and winner of the race – that was a perfect weekend. Although my start wasn’t ideal, I was really fast afterwards,” said Andlauer following the race.
Ammermüller was impressed with the efforts from the young Dutchman ten Voorde, who held his own in the opening stages of the race.
“Larry ten Voorde defended himself well over a long stretch, but I was clearly faster. By the time I’d overtaken him, the gap to Julien Andlauer was simply too big for me to pose a serious threat,” said Ammermüller, who is the only driver to achieve podium results at all three races so far this season.
Ten Voorde was happy with his race but knew where he lost out to his rivals, “My start was really good, but unfortunately Julien Andlauer grabbed his chance for an immediate counterattack. In the duel for second place, Michael Ammermüller had the advantage as he’d kept a fresh set of tyres from the qualifying for the race,” said the 22-year-old.
Despite Andlauer doing everything he could this weekend, team-mate Ammermüller retains the lead of the championship after limiting his damage with a second place finish. The German’s lead is now only five points as the two BWT Lechner Racing drivers emerge as the main title contenders. Mikkel O. Pedersen is third in the championship a further nine points adrift of Andlauer.
Pro-Am victory was never in doubt for Roar Lindland who maintained his perfect record for the 2019 season ahead of his main rival and local driver Philipp Sager who took second place ahead of Australian Stephen Grove.
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Round four of the 2019 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup takes place at Silverstone on the weekend of 13/14 July as it supports the British Grand Prix. Along with a trio of Porsche Carrera Cup GB frontrunners, Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy will be joining the action in the VIP car.
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