The fourth round of the 2019 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup will take place this weekend at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with reigning champion Michael Ammermüller leading the title battle.
BWT Lechner Racing team-mate Julien Andlauer closed the gap to the top of the table to five points last time out with a dominant victory at the Red Bull Ring, Mikkel O.Perdersen trails the Porsche Junior by a further eleven points.
Last year at Silverstone, it was Florian Latorre that took the victory ahead of Ammermüller and Mattia Drudi. Latorre’s best finish of the year so far came at Monaco with a fourth place, he will be in the hunt for at least another podium finish this weekend.
After missing the opening round in Barcelona, Larry ten Voorde has come back in to the Supercup with a bang, two third-place finishes has catapulted him in to fifth place in the championship, just four points off of fellow countryman Jaap van Lagen.
In May, the series held a two-day test at Silverstone with Andlauer emerging fastest of the drivers over the four sessions. While the Porsche Junior set the pace with a lap time of 2:03.633, it was 2018/19 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior Dan Harper that fired a warning shot, ending the test just six-hundredths of a second off of the pace of the more experienced Frenchman.
Harper is emerging as a future star with a lot of potential in the UK, and it is clear to see why he was chosen by Porsche GB to take on the Junior role for 2018/19. The eighteen-year-old could be a true threat to take the top step of the podium this weekend as he remains unfazed by the Supercup regulars and ready to fight for position.
Another rookie making waves this season is Ayhancan Güven, the young Turkish driver finished the test in third place and has shown impressive pace throughout the year so far. An unfortunate collision put him out of the running on the opening lap in Austria, being forced to retire after damage to the front suspension of his car. Güven is another driver that has the potential to upset the regulars at Silverstone and will be aiming for the podium this weekend.
The previously mentioned Latorre showed that his pace in 2018 wasn’t a fluke, ending the test in fourth place ahead of championship leader Ammermüller.
Silverstone seems to present a good opportunity to rookie drivers and Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans is no exception, finishing the test in sixth place showed his potential which he has backed up by finishing no lower than ninth place this year.
2018 Porsche Carrera cup GB champion Tio Ellinas had a tough time out last time in Austria after a frustrating qualifying session saw him start the race further down the order. A solid race saw him claw his way back to tenth place before the chequered flag. Seventh in testing, the Cypriot will be hoping that he can repeat his performance of 2015 when he won the race in Formula Renault 3.5.
Ellinas will face competition from some familiar faces as Dan Harper, George Gamble, and Seb Perez join the grid for Silverstone (you can read more about their performances this year in our British driver preview article here).
A late addition to the grid (only confirmed yesterday) is 2014 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Josh Webster, who will be racing with the Team Project 1 – FACH team. Webster has raced five times at Silverstone in the Supercup with a best finish of fourth in 2016 (with Team Project 1).
Another last minute change to the entry list sees another Carrera Cup GB regular join the grid as Am class frontrunner John Ferguson teams up with MRS-Cup Racing for the weekend.
Making the first appearance this year, the Porsche VIP car will be out on track. Last year it was Top Gear presenter and sometimes racer Chris Harris who finished the race in twenty-sixth place. This year it is six-time Olympian Sir Chris Hoy taking on the challenge, no stranger to racing the Brit has made a smooth transition from two to four wheels, the highlight of his motorsport career so far was a championship title in 2015 in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series.
In the Pro-Am class Roar Lindland is unstoppable this year taking all three victories so far. Philipp Sager is his nearest challenger, eight points adrift of the reigning champion having made the most of Nicolas Misslin being absent from Austria, previously the two drivers were tied for points in second place.
Stephen Grove was another driver to take advantage of Misslin not being on the grid as the Australian moved up to third place in the Pro-Am standings.
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