Wiebelhaus, who until this event had only competed in Formula 4, was headed just once all weekend. Defeat to Jay Mo Härtling’s Mercedes in the Saturday sprint was the only glitch in his Algarve outing, but victory in both the sprint and the enduro on Sunday still represented a strong GT Winter Series debut for both Wiebelhaus and the Haupt Racing Team.
Race 1
Härtling (SR Motorsport) and Wiebelhaus simply pulverised their rivals as they finished 1-2 in the Saturday sprint.
Wiebelhaus shadowed Härtling all the way but couldn’t quite summon up a move on the rival Mercedes, which already had a series win to its name following the Estoril enduro a week earlier.
“The first step of the podium would be better,” said Wiebelhaus. “But Jay Mo drove a perfect race.”
The pair’s superiority at Portimao was perhaps best illustrated by what happened after a mid-race safety car period ended with a little under nine minutes left on the clock. The duo had rebuilt their lead over third place to the staggering tune of 34 seconds by the flag.
Picking up the juiciest of the scraps behind the two German youngsters was their veteran countryman Christian Hook, who rounded out the podium in the field’s only Ferrari 296. The Rinaldi Racing man had a fairly lonely drive himself, at least once he’d gotten past the Laptime Performance Cup Porsche 992 of Alex Hardt, which then promptly broke down and caused the aforementioned safety car.
As is often proving to be the case in the GT Winter Series, Polish driver Adrian Lewandowski was responsible for much of the entertainment. After his fast but furious outing at Estoril, he admitted to being extra-cautious this weekend. It showed at both the first start and the safety car restart, as the Pole allowed himself to lose several positions at each. But that simply cleared the stage for
two stirring comebacks in the GT3 Poland Lamborghini Super Trofeo Evo II. He’d found his way back to fourth place for the second time in 30 minutes when the chequered flag came out.
Winners of classes with more than one entry were Lewandowski, Leandro Martins (Racar Motorsport Cup Porsche 992) and John Dhillon in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo.
Martins’ class win was particularly sweet, as his car was an emergency replacement for the one written off in the previous week’s startline accident at Estoril. Having travelled all the way from Germany to the Algarve, the Porsche had only reached the Racar garage just in time to compete on the weekend.
Source: Autosport