Preining shining on home ground
PORSCHE SUPERCUP
RED BULL RING (A)
JULY 1
ROUND 3/9
Shortly before cheering demonstration runs by Austrian racing legends Niki Lauda and Gerhard Berger at the Red Bull Ring, the home crowd celebrated a home victory from a rising star of its next generation of racers. And Lechner Racing driver Thomas Preining’s battling victory was well worth the ovation he received from the grandstands.
The 19-year-old took his first pole position by 0.210s ahead of fellow Porsche junior Julien Andlauer. But Andlauer got the jump at the start and got up the inside into the first corner. Preining ran wide, and came under attack from Florian Latorre. By the time the safety car was deployed to clear up Roar Lindland’s car, which was pitched into a low-altitude spin at the first corner after contact with Khalid Al Wahaibi, Preining was down to third.
After the restart, Latorre initially looked to threaten Andlauer’s lead, but on the seventh lap Preining was able to attack on the outside into Turn 4. They emerged side by side, but Preining made sure of the position into the following left-hander.
With Andlauer struggling for pace, Preining started to threaten, and three laps from home he took the lead up the inside into Turn 1. But Preining ran wide onto the runoff at the exit, as did Andlauer, and opted to ease off on the long flat-out run to Turn 3 to drop back to second and make sure of no penalty. A wise move given how many drivers had been penalised for exceeding track limits during practice, one that showed great maturity given that there would not be many more opportunities.
The following lap, Preining made no mistake and pulled off the move without exceeding track limits to secure victory.
While the pair battled, the top three had been joined by Dylan Pereira and Nick Yelloly. The Brummie climbed from eighth on the grid to fifth to close the gap to leader Michael Ammermuller, who finished seventh, in the championship.