Renà Rast achieves first Supercup win - NZ's Matt Halliday 5th

Stuttgart. In Silverstone René Rast has finally done it: On the demanding Grand Prix circuit the German notched up his first win in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup at the wheel of his VELTINS MRS Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. In a gripping sixth round of the world’s fastest international one make race series, the reigning Carrera Cup champion, who has already claimed three second positions so far this season, relegated the Dutch title defender Jeroen Bleekemolen (Konrad Motorsport) to finish second.

From start to finish, the fastest of the Supercup pilots put in a spirited fight for the win. René Rast took off from pole position but was unable to use this advantage and had to slot in behind Bleekemolen and local matador Richard Williams (SPS Performance) after the first corner. He then proceeded to fight his way past Williams and into second, positioning himself virtually on the bumper of the leading Bleekemolen. Initially, he couldn’t find a way past the three-time winner in 2009. It was only in the penultimate lap that Rast managed to snatch the lead in a spectacular outbraking manoeuvre and bring home his long awaited first Supercup victory. In Bleekemolen’s slipstream, who further extended his lead in the overall classification, came James Sutton (Porsche Cars Great Britain) in third, the fastest of the three guest drivers from the British Carrera Cup.

Behind the front-running trio, Patrick Huisman from the Netherlands saw the flag in fourth. Driving for SPS Performance, the record Supercup winner beat Supercup newcomer Matt Halliday from New Zealand (Federsand-Jetstream Motorsport) who increased his lead in the Rookie Classification with fifth place. Former Porsche junior Lance David Arnold ranked sixth at the flag with the third sports car entered by SPS Performance, which he will drive for the rest of the season, ahead of Jiri Janak from the Czech Republic (Konrad Motorsport) and the British Touring Car stalwart Tim Harvey (Porsche Cars Great Britain). Two budding young hopefuls made it into the top ten in their first Supercup season: Securing ninth was Renger van der Zande (Netherlands), who replaces the double Supercup champion Richard Westbrook who contests the FIA GT Championship this weekend. German Christian Engelhart (SANITEC RACING) took the flag in tenth.

René Rast (winner): “I am so happy. I had such a bad start with my revs much too high at the beginning and it cost me two places. Luckily I got past Richard, touching his car slightly when he closed the door on me, but it wasn’t intentional. Half way through the race I backed off slightly so that I could attack towards the end. That worked well. In the final two laps I was faster and more aggressive than Jeroen. I was determined to win and not finish in second again.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen (second): “René was very fast and aggressive today. He pulled no punches, and was often at the limit but always fair. When he got past me I gave him plenty of room. I could have closed the door too but then we would have collided and I didn’t want that. I was concentrating on the points towards the championship. We’ve made another huge step towards winning the title. And as far as my duel with René is concerned, next time victory will hopefully be mine.”

James Sutton (third): “I got the best seat in the house today and saw the fantastic duel between René and Jeroen. I’m thrilled that I could match the pace of the front-runners and I’m very pleased with third place.

Race result
1. René Rast (GER), VELTINS MRS Racing, 26:58.487 minutes
2. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), Konrad Motorsport, + 2.174 seconds
3. James Sutton (GBR), Porsche Cars Great Britain, + 2.910
4. Patrick Huisman (NED), SPS Performance, + 3.397
5. Matt Halliday (NZL), Federsand-Jetstream Motorsport, + 10.320
6. Lance David Arnold (GER), SPS Performance, + 12.505

Drivers’ standings after 6 of 11 rounds
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), 120 points
2. Richard Westbrook (GBR), 78
3. Patrick Huisman (NED), 77
4. René Rast (GER), 76
5. Stefan Rosina (SVK), 73
6. Matt Halliday (NZL), 69

Round 7 of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place on 12th July as support to the German Grand Prix on the Nürburgring.