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Reigning Rookie champion Tom Sharp (IDL Racing with Team Parker Racing) stormed to a seventh place finish in front of a crowd of over 100,000 fans as the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup supported the British Grand Prix.

Chaotic weather with sudden downpours turned the race into a thriller, with the challenging conditions providing the seven Porsche Carrera Cup GB guest competitors with an opportunity to showcase their pace and racecraft on motorsport’s biggest international stage.

As the 30 competitors in Porsche’s elite international championship formed up to drive to the grid, the first drops of rain began to fall. Dark clouds hung low over the 3.7 mile circuit, then as the 911 GT3 Cup cars formed up the rain began in earnest. At the last moment, the race was declared wet and teams allowed to switch from dry to wet tyres on the grid.

The safety car was deployed, with former Supercup driver Bernd Mayländer behind the wheel and leading the field for two laps in heavy rain. When he switched off the lights and pulled into the pits, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB competitors took full advantage of their experience gained earlier in the season in similar conditions to make their move.

Leading the charge up the field was Tom Sharp, racing as number 44 for the weekend, who was able to find enough grip to complete an amazing first lap in fifth place after starting eighth. A move past the 2014 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Josh Webster (Rookie Team Deutsche Post by Project 1) saw Sharp into fourth and quickly onto the tail of double 2016 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup winner Matteo Cairoli (Fach Auto Tech), challenging for a podium and at one point the fastest driver on track:

“We didn’t really have a plan as we thought it would be dry. We managed to change the car a little, but it was never going to be perfect for the wet. We were in a different position to the regular guys as we can afford to have a spin, so you can push a bit harder and that’s what we tried to do. I predicted we’d struggle a bit towards the end of the race and tried to make up as many places as possible early on, but it’s quite incredible to think we were challenging for third. It’s not something we ever thought we’d be able to do.”

Webster went on to take the honours as the top-placed British driver in an excellent fourth, while another solid international performance saw reigning Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Dan Cammish inside the top ten, taking the flag after 12 laps of racing in ninth.

However, the two drivers most on the move were Charlie Eastwood (Redline Racing) and Tom Oliphant (Team Redline). Despite having his fastest time in qualifying deleted for track limits and subsequently starting from 16th, Eastwood proved his racecraft to make the top ten in the final order, an outstanding performance from the Porsche GB 2016/17 Scholar in his first Supercup appearance.

Achieving no less of a feat, Oliphant proved undaunted by his competitors and the conditions. An ability to find grip in the slippery conditions, as evidenced by some breathtaking overtaking manoeuvres around the outside, saw the Cheshire driver gain the most places to finish 12th after starting 20th on his Supercup debut.

Another newcomer was 2016 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Rookie Lewis Plato (Team Redline), who finished his first Supercup race in 17th, only two places behind Dino Zamparelli (GT Marques with MOMO-Megatron Team PARTRAX) who was also making his first appearance.

Regular Pro-Am2 competitor Mark Radcliffe (Intersport Racing with Team Parker Racing) had a steeper learning curve than he expected as he took on the challenging conditions. The second-placed driver in the Pro-Am2 standings proved no less able to provide entertaining racing on the international stage as he battled to 29th at the flag.

After a proud showing amongst the elite of Porsche’s Supercup competitors, the seven drivers will return to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB grid for rounds nine and ten at Snetterton on 30 and 31 July. Follow the battle at @CarreraCupGB on Twitter and @carreracupgb on Instagram.

Ends

For more information, please contact the Porsche press office team:

Kate Gregory: Press Office Assistant
Email: kate.gregory@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 916 5050

Rob Durrant: Motorsport Press Officer
E-mail: rob.durrant@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 925 2855
Mobile: 07342 084 853

Rob Punshon: Senior Press Officer
E-mail: rob.punshon@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 925 2733
Mobile: 07881 008950

Nick Perry: Product Affairs Manager
Email: nick.perry@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 925 2721
Mobile: 07775 860 291

Angus Fitton: Head of PR
Email: angus.fitton@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 925 2720
Mobile: 07824 623 874

Press website: presse.porsche.de and newspress.co.uk
Press email: press@porsche.co.uk
Press Twitter: @PorscheGB @CarreraCupGB
Porsche News: newsroom.porsche.com

Editors’ Note:

Porsche can claim more than 30,000 race victories in almost every motor sports series worldwide, and while many of these successes have been achieved with immensely powerful specialist race cars like the evocative 917 and 956, the iconic 911 sports coupe is the bedrock on which the peerless racing reputation of the Stuttgart marque has been built.

The 911 demonstrates perfectly the Porsche philosophy of not only building sports cars in order to win races, but also to gain development know-how that can be incorporated into the evolution of its road cars. Successive generations of the rear-engined 911 have been honed on the race circuit since its debut in 1963, with customers benefitting from continuous improvements in key dynamic areas such as engine performance, braking and aerodynamics.

Porsche is the world's largest manufacturer of racing cars; the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car competes in the Mobil1 Supercup, the world’s fastest international one-make Championship, which supports Formula One Grands Prix. The 911 GT3 Cup also entertains spectators around the world racing in the many domestic Carrera Cup Championships in Germany, Asia, France, Italy, Japan, Scandinavia and Great Britain. The all-new GT3 R is the first step for drivers moving up to GT racing, while the 911 RSR is the standard-bearer for the Porsche Works teams in international blue riband events like Daytona and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

With a record number of overall victories, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans history. In 2014, Porsche returned to Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the factory-run 919 Hybrid sports prototype race car in the top LMP1 category, and scored its first outright victory in its debut WEC season in the final race in Brazil.

The 919 Hybrid LMP1 proves the ‘downsizing’ concept in featuring a unique two-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine, supplemented by two energy recovery systems, which combined develop almost 900 hp.

Porsche scored its 17th and latest success in Le Mans last June when Britain’s Nick Tandy, New Zealand driver Earl Bamber and German F1 star Nico Hulkenberg took the chequered flag in their 919 Hybrid LMP1 after 24 hours of flat out racing. Chasing this trio across the line was the second 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley (New Zealand), Mark Webber (Australia) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) to deliver a 1-2 result for the Stuttgart team. This trio ultimately clinched the 2015 Drivers’ World Endurance Championship, and the WEC Manufacturers’ Championship, for Porsche.