Seyffarth secures pole – UPS-Porsche-Junior Holzer shares first row
Stuttgart. The fight for the championship of the Carrera Cup Deutschland comes to a head. During qualifying for the penultimate round on the Circuit de Catalunya (Spain), Jan Seyffarth (Germany) underlined his aspirations for the coveted title. Competing for SMS Seyffarth-Motorsport, the 22-year-old set the fastest time, securing pole position ahead of UPS-Porsche junior Marco Holzer (Germany) and the current points' leader René Rast (Germany, MRS Team PZ Aschaffenburg).The 2.98 kilometre Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona obviously suits Seyffarth. Already at the end of April he put in an impressive drive in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup here, posting pole position and going on to claim victory. Now, at the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup he again leads the field with a time of 1:13.749 minutes. Taking up the 27-lap race alongside Seyffarth on Sunday (21 September) is the UPS-Porsche-Junior Marco Holzer. The 20-year-old, for whom 2008 is his first season in Europe's fastest one-make series, headed the time sheets until two minutes before the end of qualifying, before missing out on his first pole position result by four-hundredths of a second. The current points' leader René Rast (109 points) was just five-hundredths of a second off the pole-setting time. The 21-year-old occupies a place in the grid directly behind Seyffarth's car. In the championship rankings, Seyffarth sits third with 96 points, 13 points shy of the leader. Second in the overall classification is Chris Mamerow (Germany, 97 points). In Spain, however, the Mamerow Racing PZ Essen pilot only managed to qualify his 911 GT3 Cup on eleventh.
Fourth in the fight for top times went to Jiri Janak (Czech Republic) of the Schnabl Engineering PZ Koblenz squad. Martin Ragginger from Austria secured fifth position behind Jarak The 20-year-old UPS-Porsche-Junior driver shares the third grid row with Nicolas Armindo (France, ARAXA RACING PZ Reutlingen). Last weekend at the final round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup in Monza, the Frenchman gave a brilliant performance, starting the sprint from twelfth to receive the chequered flag as first.
Positions seven and eight on the grid are occupied by Robert Renauer (Germany, Farnbacher Racing PZ Nürnberg) and Uwe Alzen (Germany, HP Team Herberth PZ Olympiapark). Alzen's team mate Joerg Hardt (Germany) as well as Robert Lukas (Poland, SMS Seyffarth-Motorsport) round off the top ten qualifiers.
Jan Seyffarth (pole-sitter): “We took a gamble in that I waited until six minutes before the end of qualifying to go out. There were two possibilities. Either I would fail dismally or be a hero – this time everything went our way and we won. I got a perfect run in and took pole by just four-hundredths of a second. That's great for the championship. René starts from third and Chris is on eleventh. But I'm not going to take any unnecessary risks tomorrow. After all, I'm in the best position to earn myself 20 points.”
Marco Holzer (second qualifier): “I was second in the first free practice and first in the second free practice. Now I'm second on the grid. By now, the weekend couldn't have gone better. Okay, I'm a little disappointed that Jan demoted me to second right at the end. It could have been my first pole position. Never mind. I'm pleased with my second and that the rest of the field will start behind me. The team did a fantastic job and gave me a perfect car. Tomorrow I just have to turn my practice and qualifying performance into a correspondingly good result and I hope, like on the Nürburgring, I can take home a trophy.
René Rast (third qualifier): “I'm really happy with my qualifying result today. Third on the grid is a good starting position for the race. Aside from that, Chris is only on eleventh. Okay, Jan is in front of me but I'm not stressing about it. Even if I trail the others and forget about winning I will have fulfilled my goals for this weekend. I just have to see the flag. So my plan is to drive conservatively and not take risks in trying to get ahead.”
Television station “Premiere” broadcasts the race on the Spanish Circuit de Catalunya on Monday (22 September) from 13.30 hours. Additionally, “DSF” televises highlights on Sunday evening in its “DTM Highlights” programme from 18.00 hours.
Qualifying result:
1. Jan Seyffarth (D), SMS Seyffarth-Motorsport, 1:13.749 minutes (145.320 km/h)
2. Marco Holzer (D), UPS-Porsche-Junior-Team, + 0.040 seconds
3. René Rast (D), MRS Team PZ Aschaffenburg, + 0.054
4. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnabl Engineering PZ Koblenz, + 0.073
5. Martin Ragginger (A), UPS-Porsche-Junior-Team, + 0.192
The full qualifying result is available for accredited journalists to download from the Porsche press database.
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文本
英語 (Porsche AG)
已归档
M08_2939
M 155/08
2008-09-20
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- 赛车运动
- 2008赛季
- Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland
- 最新消息
- Spain \ Barcelona
Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, round 8 on the Circuit de Catalunya, Qualifying: Seyffarth secures pole – UPS-Porsche-Junior Holzer shares first row