What an impressive start for BWT Lechner Racing and Dylan Pereira into the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season 2022: Even heavy rain beginning to fall about ten minutes before the planned start of the race could not stop the 24-year-old from Luxembourg from claiming victory at the tradititional Autodromo Dino e Enzo Ferrari at Imola. Harry King also drove a very strong race, moving up from P7 on the grid to third just behind defending champion Larry ten Voorde, securing a second podium for the Austrian squad. Bastian Buus finished in P5, showing all his talent in the very difficult conditions and rounded up the great team result.
Due to the rain, the race was started after two laps behind the safety-car, and Pereira managed to keep his lead from pole position, not giving any chance to the cars behind him to close up: “It was very important to stay in front and even open a little gap immediately. Especially in the wet the best position is always in the front, where you have no visibility problems”, the happy winner, who claimed his sixth Supercup victory overall, explained. “The car was very good in the wet as well as in the dry in qualifying, so also after a second safety-car I was able to get everything right again and stay ahead until the chequered flag. Of course it is great to start the season with a victory. The hard work the whole team did over the winter, all the efforts we put into our preparation, paid off, so a big ‘Thank You’ to everybody.”
Harry King, winner of the British Porsche Carrera Cup 2020, fulfilled the promise he had given on Saturday, when he had finished in P7 in qualifying. He showed that there was much more to come when he made up his way through the field up to P3, claiming his first Supercup podium in his debut race for BWT Lechner Racing: „I am really happy that I was able to overtake some of the guys in front of me, not making any mistakes. In the final stages of the race, I was even able to put pressure on ten Voorde, hoping for an error of him. But that did not come – so I did not want to risk too much, really wanted to bring the podium home“, said the 21-year old Brit.
Bastian Buus from Denmark after P3 in qualifying again put in a sensational performance especially during the first laps, when he put a lot of pressure on ten Voorde, coming very close to snatching P2 from the Dutchman. A little off dropped him back two positions, so he finished in fifth place, very close to Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich. “I had the pace to get on the podium today, but on this track it is difficult to overtake and the rain for sure made it not easier. So I had trouble getting by Larry – that´s why the little mistake happened“, the 18-year-old analyzed with a a lot of maturity. “But in general, it was a very promising first Supercup weekend for me, I was very competitive, reached my goal to be best Rookie, scored good points for both championships, so a good start into the season.“
BWT Lechner Racing now leaves Imola leading all three championships, “which of course is a very good feeling“, Robert Lechner stated. “So many points scored at the very beginning of the season is something very valuable, even if it´s still a very long way to go with seven races still ahead.“