Wiebelhaus, who until this event had only competed in Formula 4, was stopped only once all weekend.
The defeat against Jay Mo Härtling's Mercedes in the sprint race on Saturday was the only flaw in his outing in the Algarve, but the victory in both the sprint and endurance races on Sunday still represented an excellent debut in the GT Winter Series both for him and for the Haupt Racing Team.
Race 1
Härtling (SR Motorsport) and Wiebelhaus simply pulverized their rivals, finishing Saturday's sprint race in first and second place.
The young man followed his rival the entire time, but was unable to impose himself on the competitor who had already achieved a victory in the Estoril endurance race the previous week.
“The first step of the podium would have been better – said Wiebelhaus – But Jay Mo drove a perfect race”.
The pair's superiority at Portimao was highlighted by what happened after a mid-race safety car period, which ended with just under nine minutes to go. At the checkered flag, the duo rebuilt their lead over third with a gap of 34 seconds.
Behind the two youngsters, veteran Christian Hook finished third, completing the podium with the only Ferrari 296 in the race. The Rinaldi Racing driver had a rather solitary race, at least once overtaking Alex Hardt's Porsche 992 (Laptime Performance Cup), which suffered a breakdown causing the SC to enter.
As already seen in GT Winter Series, Adrian Lewandowski was the protagonist of much of the show. After his spirited race at Estoril, he admitted that he was very cautious this weekend.
The Pole demonstrated this both at the first start and on the restart with the safety car, as he allowed himself to lose several positions in each of them. But this simply paved the way for two exciting comebacks in his Lamborghini Super Trofeo Evo II. When the checkered flag was shown, the GT3 Poland driver regained fourth place for the second time in 30 minutes.
The winners of the classes with more than one entry were Lewandowski, Leandro Martins (Racar Motorsport Cup – Porsche 992) and John Dhillon with the AF Corse Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo.
Martins' class victory was particularly welcome, as his car was an emergency replacement for the one destroyed in the previous week's crash on the start line at Estoril.
After traveling from Germany to the Algarve, the Porsche reached the Racar garage just in time to participate in the weekend.
Photo by: Gedlich Racing
Hartling in command
Race 2
Wiebelhaus's road to victory was always a little easier, as Kenneth Heyer, slightly slower than him, took the lead in the SR Mercedes at the start of the second sprint race. It was therefore no surprise to see him establish a solid lead over Heyer and Lewandowski when, on lap five, a curious red flag came out.
The accident occurred with Thor Haugen (Pellin Racing – Ferrari 488) hitting Morten Stromsted's (Sunder Motorworks) Porsche Cup from behind. When a piece of Haugen's front wheel flew off it hit the innocent Igor Klaja (PTT Racing).
The latter's Porsche spun and crashed while he was trying to control the skid, hitting the barrier. The cleaning operation took too long for the safety car to be deployed.
None of this affected Wiebelhaus, who repeated the breakaway after the race was restarted with enough time to complete four laps. Heyer and Lewandowski completed the podium.
Martins earned fourth place overall and another satisfying class victory. While Lewandowski once again won the Lambo category, while Motohiko Isozaki (AF Corse) won the Ferrari Challenge category.
Photo by: Gedlich Racing
Martins Racar Porsche
Race 3
The final race of the weekend was once again quite simple for the lone Wiebelhaus. Heyer led the proceedings at the start of the 50 minutes allowing Wiebelhaus to build up a lead of over 20 seconds when the pit stop window opened.
It's certainly not the kind of deficit that Härtling would have been able to make up for in the second half of the race, as his pace was similar to Wiebelhaus's.
Lewandowski occupied third place in the first half, but there were concerns about the Lamborghini's engine and the team carried out a precautionary oil top-up at the time of the pit stop. The Pole thus placed himself behind his colleague Mateusz Lisowski (PTT Racing Team – Porsche Cup).
They both then saw Daan Arrow pass by within moments. The Dutchman was flying after taking over the Good Speed Racing Mercedes from regular driver Piotr Wira, setting lap times comparable to those of Wiebelhaus and Härtling.
Arrow was too far behind to expect anything better than third place, but managed to take the final step of the podium.
Lewandowski leapfrogged Lisowski for fourth place overall, taking first place in their respective classes. The best in the Ferrari Cup class was the AF Corse crew of John Dhillon and Matt Griffin.
#GTWS #Mercedes #dominance #Portimao
