The Nürburgring circuit was constructed in 1927 and the first Monaco Grand Prix goes back to 1929. Frenchman, Kevin Estre, has just put on a couple of stunning performances in quick succession on these legendary circuits at the wheel of his Porsche entered by the Hermès Attempto Racing team. He won the round of the German Porsche Carrera Cup which was a curtain-raiser to the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and almost scored a victory in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in the streets of Monaco. At this stage of the season the icsport management driver is in a position to win the title in both championships.
The Nürburgring 24 Hours is one of the major motor racing events of the year. Almost 400 cars, 1000 drivers and 20.000 spectators take part in this huge motor sporting party. The famous Nordschliefe is linked to the Formula 1 circuit creating a track measuring 25,378 km! As the organisers decided to combine the fields in the Porsche Cup Deutschland and the Clio Cup, traffic management was one of the keys to the fifth round of the season.
Estre was fifth on the grid and started to push on the first of the four laps: “I took second place at the start and I immediately began to attack pole sitter, Philipp Eng. I knew he’d be slower in the dry than in the wet in qualifying. I pulled out to pass him under braking for Aremberg. He closed the door but I went for it anyway!” This spectacular overtaking manoeuvre enabled Kevin to open up a gap. “On lap 3, I found myself behind a Clio driver who almost stopped when he saw the yellow flag. My team-mate Nicky Thiim caught me. I upped the pace and pulled out three seconds but on the last lap we came upon a gaggle of Clios scrapping away merrily. Nicky took a huge risk to try and latch on to my slipstream in the last long straight. I had to put two wheels on the grass on the outside to get out of this trap while Nicky hit a Clio trying to pass on the inside. Nothing is more prestigious for the Germans than a win at the ‘Ring!”
Estre almost pulled off a repeat performance in Monaco. In qualifying he set the quickest time 0.3s faster than Sean Edwards but, “the red flag was hung out when I was just a few metres from the timing line and my time was cancelled, so I ended up in third place on the grid.” In the race, after Sebastian Bleekemolen’s crash the Frenchman was running neck and neck with Edwards in the sprint to the line:» Rene Rast who was behind me went off and the race was neutralised. The green flag was shown two laps from the end. Last time round I reckoned I could pass Sean at Mirabeau and to have a chance I had to go through the right-hander before Casino very quickly. Unfortunately, I kissed the guardrail on the apex and that was enough to modify the front drive train’s geometry. I preferred to nurse the car home to the finish.”
This superb second place in Monaco puts Kevin in fourth place in the Supercup. Thanks to his victory at the Nürburgring he is third in the Posche Carrera Cup Deutschland, the sixth and seventh rounds of which are taking place this coming weekend on the Red Bull circuit in Austria.
Source : Kévin Estre