In temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, Larry ten Voorde (Team GP Elite) clinched pole position for round six of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in Barcelona.
The Dutchman shares the front row for Sunday’s race with Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans (New Zealand/BWT Lechner Racing). Lining up behind them are Florian Latorre (France/CLRT) and the fastest of the eight rookies, Max van Splunteren (Netherlands/Team GP Elite).
Hollywood star Michael Fassbender (Ireland) contests the international one-make cup in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup this weekend as a prominent guest driver.
“The balance of my car wasn’t optimal on the first set of tyres,” reported Ten Voorde. “My mechanics tweaked the suspension setup and my second attempt ran perfectly.”
With this, he was just 0.184 seconds faster than Porsche Junior Evans. “My flying lap wasn’t ideal, but the first row is super. I can do something from here,” said the New Zealander.
“The racetrack is tough on cars, so a lot can happen in the race,” said Latorre, already looking ahead to Sunday’s race.
Van Splunteren thanked his teammate Ten Voorde. “I followed Larry during my hot lap. I made a minor mistake otherwise we might have shared the front row.” The fifth spot on the grid is occupied by championship leader Dylan Pereira (Luxembourg/BWT Lechner Racing).
Guest driver Michael Fassbender has made progress. Compared to his free practice time, the German-Irish actor (“Inglourious Basterds”, “12 Years a Slave”, “X-Men”) slashed about 1.5-seconds off the gap to the frontrunners. Fassbender is currently on his personal “Road to Le Mans”.
His goal is to contest the famous 24-hour race at the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR. With this 510 hp racing version of the Porsche 911, Fassbender tackles the long-distance races of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) this season. In the ELMS, the Heidelberg-born Irishman shares driving duties with Porsche works driver Richard Lietz (Austria) and Felipe Fernández Laser (Germany).
Laser also coaches Michael Fassbender during the Barcelona weekend. The racing actor’s guest appearance in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is another mosaic stone in the comprehensive training programme on the “Road to Le Mans”.
In the 485 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, he has already contested a season in the Porsche Sports Cup Deutschland and has undertaken test drives on the Formula 1 racetrack in Spielberg (Austria).
“The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup requires a different driving style than the 911 RSR. The cup car moves around more, which means I can learn a great deal,” describes Fassbender. “Now I’m looking forward to the race on Sunday. Every kilometre in a racing car counts for me.”
The sixth of eight races in the 2020 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup kicks off on Sunday (16 August) at 12:30 pm (CEST).
