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The first win of the year in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland went to Jan Seyffarth from Germany. The reigning vice-champion had taken up the 18-lap race on the 4.57 kilometre Hockenheimring circuit from pole position and turned it into another top performance. Driving for the tolimit/Seyffarth Motorsport team, the 22-year-old lost his lead briefly at the start to Thomas Jäger (Germany, MS Racing PZ Hamburg Nord-West) who shared the front row, but managed to snatch it back and successfully defend his lead to the flag. After a faultless race, the former Porsche junior saw the finish line after 31:53.175 minutes in first.
Behind the youngster, ex-DTM pilot Thomas Jäger received the flag in an unchallenged second, about 1.7 seconds shy of the winner. A gripping race ensued for the final podium step: Until lap 15 it was held by Christian Engelhart (Germany, MRS Team PZ Aschaffenburg), who had posted third in qualifying and with a brilliant drive had held off Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands, ARAXA RACING PZ Reutlingen). However, the reigning Porsche Mobil1 Supercup champion finally seized Engelhart to bring his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup home in third position.

Bad luck then hit 22-year-old Engelhart: Several seconds after Bleekemolen’s overtaking manoeuvre he was pushed into a spin by Philipp Wlazik (Germany, Hermes Attempto Racing) and fell back to rank 13th. Engelhart managed to salvage twelfth place, with Wlazik receiving a penalty which relegated him to the back of the field.

Fourth went to Nicki Thiim (Denmark, Hermes Attempto Racing). The reigning champion of the Seat Leon Supercopa gave an impressive performance at his first race in the 420 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and at times attacked Jeroen Bleekemolen in an attempt to pass. Trailing the Dane in fifth and sixth were Hannes Plesse (Germany, Schnabl Engineering) and Robert Renauer (Germany, Farnbacher Racing).



Jan Seyffarth (winner): “The start was very difficult. I didn’t get away well, turned into the corner side by side with Thomas and simply didn’t want to risk too much, so I let him pass me. My car had a great set-up, so I caught him again and put the pressure on. At the entrance to the Motodrom I was back in front, where I could control the race without problems to the finish. It was a fantastic start to the season: pole, win and fastest race lap. It can go on like this.”

Thomas Jäger (second): “I had an awesome start. Unfortunately my first lap didn’t go as well and Jan slipped past me again. His race was perfect and I had no chance to win. My new team did a fantastic job – this was our first race together and it was great. I’ll thank them with a win in the coming races.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen (third): “All in all, a very good race. Perhaps I attacked too hard at the beginning and wanted to get ahead too quickly. But still, it was enough for the podium today. We’re still right on track with our master plan – the title. In the next race on the Eurospeedway the cards are reshuffled.”

Television station DSF broadcasts highlights of the first championship round in its “Motorsportmagazin” programme on Sunday evening (17 May) from 21.15 hours. Moreover, N-TV televises highlights from Hockenheim on Tuesday (19 May) from 16.20 hours in its “Speed” programme.

Race result:
1. Jan Seyffarth (D), tolimit/Seyffarth Motorsport, 31:53.175 minutes (154.923 km/h)
2. Thomas Jäger (D), MS Racing PZ Hamburg Nord-West, + 1.724 seconds
3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), ARAXA RACING PZ Reutlingen, + 5.654
4. Nicki Thiim (DK), Hermes Attempto Racing, + 8.596
5. Hannes Plesse (D), Schnabl Engineering, + 10.697