The fifth race of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season at the Hockenheimring was a story of two safety car periods and a red flag. Less than 50 percent of the race distance had been completed when the race was stopped, and so no points were awarded in the championship.
The weekend began promisingly for the FACH AUTO TECH squad. A solid qualifying session gave Florian Latorre, Jaxon Evans and Kantadhee Kusiri a great platform from which to attack the Porsche single-make series’ annual visit to Germany. The three drivers made a great start to the race, but a safety car was called out onto the track after just four laps due to an on-track incident.
With overtaking not permitted behind the safety car, the three FACH AUTO TECH drivers were unable to gain any positions. The same applied to the second safety car period, which came immediately after the re-start. As persistent rain was only making conditions worse, the race director opted to red-flag the race behind the safety car.
“The race in Hockenheim was a disappointment on many levels for us,” said Team Principal Alex Fach. “The majority of the race was run behind the safety car. This gave our drivers no chance of going on the attack and gaining ground. I can’t really understand why the race was red-flagged so early after just seven laps. If we had raced for another two laps, we would have reached 50 percent race distance and could have awarded points. It’s particularly frustrating for Kantadhee, who improved from 18th to 12th – it would have been some well-earned points for him.”
The next round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup takes place at the Hungaroring in Budapest on the weekend of 2 to 4 August.