This weekend the European FIA GT3 Championship called in on Portimao, in Portugal, and ProSpeed Competition travelled on down to the Algarve with a
place in the top-5, and this in both the driver as also the team championships. Sunday midday, following the second race of the weekend, Marco Holzer and Paul van Splunteren were up in third place in the championship and ProSpeed Competition had climbed on up into second spot in the teams’ intermediate rankings. “An absolute top weekend”, Paul van Splunteren joyfully remarked after the press conference on Sunday. “We won the first race and came second in the Sunday race and thanks to that we have seriously moved on up in the championship, what more could you ask for. I would have signed for that with both hands tied…”

Qualifying

Right from the qualifying sessions the Porsche 911 GT3-R was showing its potential. In the #61 NEC Porsche Paul Van Splunteren and Marco Holzer qualified in third and fifth spot, whilst Petri Lappalainen and Markus Palttala clocked up an 11th and 13th place.

Marco Holzer: “I’m not really happy with the time I set, if my lap had been perfect I could definitely have ended up in second or third place. But all in all it’s now up to me to really take off out of the starting blocks on Sunday.”

Race 1

Petri Lappalainen and Paul van Splunteren were the two drivers on duty for the start of race 1 on Saturday and both had an excellent kick off. The Finn moved up from eleventh to ninth, took in three more places before handing over the car in sixth spot to Markus Palttala. The younger of the two Finns experienced a difficult second part of the race, seeing the tyres had seriously suffered from the extreme Portuguese heat and were well passed their best. Palttala defended his position brilliantly, but just before the finish he was nudged off the track, finally crossing the line in eleventh place. Meanwhile in the other car Paul van Splunteren moved up into second slot after the start and later Marco finished off the race in a brilliant manner.

Paul van Splunteren: “I had a good start and was immediately in second place behind another Porsche. In the opening faze the Corvette behind me was just a bit too fast and I wanted to save my tyres, so I let him through and followed on behind. I knew Marco would be fast and as expected he finished it off beautifully. I’m extremely happy!”

Petri Lappalainen: “I reckon I drove my best race of the entire season, I felt great and the car was brilliant. Pity for Markus, because otherwise we might have given ProSpeed a few extra points.”

Race 2

Marco Holzer also had a brilliant start and immediately moved up two places. The young German drove a strong first half of the race and handed over the Porsche 911 GT3-R in second place to Paul van Splunteren, who finally took the chequered flag in second place. For Lappalainen and Palttala a few points awaited them, seeing the Finnish ProSpeed Competition drivers moved up from thirteenth to ninth.

Paul van Splunteren: “I came up behind the leading Ford and knew that I could get passed him. Unfortunately he didn’t spot me and we nudged one another. I was able to get going again, but victory was out of the question. All in all we have had a brilliant weekend and I’m truly motivated to finish off the season in a strong fashion in Zolder!”

Source : ProSpeed Competition