First Supercup win for Norbert Siedler

Stuttgart. Norbert Siedler celebrated his first victory in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup. At the Circuit de Catalyunya on the outskirts of Barcelona, the Austrian won the third round of the world’s fastest international brand trophy series for his VELTINS MRS Racing team ahead of Dutchmen Patrick Huisman (Konrad Motorsport) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (Al Faisal Lechner Racing).

The result of this gripping and turbulent race, the first of the season on European soil, was only determined shortly before the flag. With an outbraking manoeuvre in the final lap, pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen regained the lead from the Sean Edwards (Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit) which he had lost to the Briton right after the start. But the new front-runner wasn’t given the chance to enjoy his lead for long: Shortly afterwards, Sean Edwards braked too late heading into the hairpin corner and crashed into the rear of the title defender’s car. After the race, the marshals handed him a 25-second penalty for this manoeuvre which relegated him back to twelfth position. Norbert Siedler profited the most from this decision, giving him his first success in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup.

Despite losing his front-running position in the race, Jeroen Bleekemolen takes over the points lead. His teammate René Rast (Germany), who had topped the points to now, experienced a weekend to forget. After claiming a double victory at the first two season-opening rounds in Bahrain, the German only managed to qualify for the seventh spot in Barcelona. In the race a driveshaft problem in the formation lap resulted in Rast experiencing the action as a spectator.

Behind Patrick Huisman, who moved considerably closer to claiming his 25th Supercup win after a long dry spell, as well as the unlucky Jeroen Bleekemolen, another Dutch driver clinched fourth position: Supercup returnee Jaap van Lagen (Team Bleekemolen Harders Plaza) underlined his strong performance in qualifying at his first race of the season. Fifth place went to Nick Tandy (Konrad Motorsport) from Great Britain, further extending his lead in the BBS rookie classification. Piloting the sister VELTINS MRS Racing 911 GT3 Cup, Jan Seyffarth (Germany) saw the chequered flag in sixth.

Norbert Siedler (winner): “I would have preferred to win my first Supercup race under different conditions, but our team deserves this success. I got away well at the start and managed to match the pace of the front-runners until I got some understeering and lost contact to the leaders. While they fought up ahead, I was able to creep closer in the final laps. My car had a great set-up. Now I hope it’s good enough for a podium result in Monte Carlo.”

Patrick Huisman (second): “The competitors in front of me had the advantage of new tyres in the first laps and could pull away. I more or less drove my own race without any great pressure from behind, but also without any great chance of making up positions. It was a good feeling to climb the podium again. Now I’m looking forward to my favourite race in Monaco.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen (third): “I’m so disappointed. My start was bad, Sean was quicker early on, but I was relatively certain he would eventually experience problems with his tyres. I waited until the final lap to attack. If he hadn’t have hit the rear of my car several corners before the flag, my plan would have worked.”


Race result
1. Norbert Siedler (A), VELTINS MRS Racing, 26:39.555 minutes
2. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, + 1.156 seconds
3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Al Faisal Lechner Racing, + 1.810
4. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Team Bleekemolen Harders Plaza, + 2.633
5. Nicholas Tandy (GB), Konrad Motorsport, + 4.328
6. Jan Seyffarth (D), VELTINS MRS Racing, + 7.219

Driver’s classification after 3 of 10 races
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), 48 points
2. René Rast (D), 44
3. Nicholas Tandy (GB), 42
4. Stefan Rosina (SK), 40
5. Norbert Siedler (A), 32
6. Jan Seyffarth (D), 31

Round 4 of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place on 16 May as support to the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
Source [Porsche]