Rast holds off Siedler for Nordschleife victory

Rene Rast scored victory in the Porsche Supercup round at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany last weekend as a monster grid of 97 cars assembled for the joint Porsche Carrera World Cup.

Norbert Siedler initially translated his pole position into a lead at the first corner before Rast pounced as behind Nick Tandy took third from Kuba Giermaziak.

It was soon clear that the Lechner Racing pair, as well as Tandy, had the legs on the field as they began to pull clear. But for Tandy, whose model of consistency had helped him occupy top spot in the championship, showed that even the best can still be caught out by the fearsome Green Hell. Attempting a pass on Siedler at the fast Aremberg passage, the Konrad Porsche was pitched into the barriers and ultimately retirement.

That left the Austrian free to challenge his team-mate. For all six-laps the pair ran nose to tail before impressive guest drive Lance David Arnold closed in to make it a three-way fight. Indeed, at one stage his pressure was sufficient to put Siedler off onto the grass as he fought to keep the German at bay.

In the end the trio took the chequered flag just over 3 seconds apart with new Supercup championship leader Sean Edwards some 18 seconds adrift in fourth.

Supercup rookie Kevin Estre produced an excellent performance to climb from 13th on the grid to finish fifth, ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Patrick Huisman and Stefan Rosina – the latter pair both recovering after briefly visiting Tandy in the Aremberg gravel.

Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Christian Engelhart completed the top ten.          

Tandy’s DNF sees him slip to third in the drivers’ standings 14 points adrift of leader Edwards. Rast’s victory promotes him to second just five points off the lead.

Catch Porsche Supercup coverage on Motors TV throughout 2011.

Tom Hornsby