Unfortunate start for BWT Lechner Racing into the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season 2025
The cars were perfectly prepared, the drivers ready, the speed was there – but nevertheless BWT Lechner had a very unfortunate start into the 2025 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season. At the classical 4.909 km long Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari at Imola, under a sunny sky, the stage was set for a great race, but for the BWT Lechner Racing duo Marvin Klein and Robert de Haan it ended way too soon. Both were taken out of the race immediately after the start in Turn 3 in a collision that involved ten cars in total and caused a Red Flag.
Of course a very disappointing outcome at a weekend that had started so well and given a lot of hope from the very beginning. The first free practice on Friday evening gave all the drivers a good opportunity to familiarize themselves with the track, even as the 45 minutes were interrupted by a Red Flag and a Virtual Safety Car due to some cars having stopped on the circuit. BWT Lechner Racing had a very good start into the first Supercup round 2025 with Marvin Klein and Robert de Haan finishing in P1 and P2 in the provisional classification and generally setting consistent fast laptimes, even if some of their times, like so many of other drivers, were deleted later due to alleged violations of track limits.
In qualifying on Saturday, it seemed to go the same way: After the first outing, Klein and de Haan had topped the time sheets in P1 and P2, but with the second set of tyres, they were unable to improve enough to keep their positions and dropped back to P4 and P7 in the classification. For different reasons they couldn’t get the best sector times together and also in the final decisive moments were additionally unlucky with traffic and track positions. Which due to the grid positions in the middle of the pack should have the unfortunate consequences come race day.
Robert de Haan: “The speed was there, a lot was possible, but unfortunately something happened that was not in our hands. Especially with Monaco coming up so soon, it was maybe not so clever of some people to create such a mess, but nothing we can do about it. All we can do now is to focus on Monaco and bounce back there!”
Marvin Klein: “Of course it was a very frustrating first round of the season. The feeling was there, the car was really fast but unfortunately I got pushed by someone in the first lap then someone crashed into me because of that and the car was too damaged to continue, so we had a DNF. But heads up – all eyes on Monaco now!”
BWT Lechner Racing Tem Principal and CEO Robert Lechner:
“We at least partly paid the price on Sunday for a not perfect qualifying on Saturday. Of course the risk is higher when you start from P4 and P7, especially at a track like Imola with a tricky combination of corners soon after the start. Both our cars got taken out by contact from others in a chain reaction – there was absolutely nothing Marvin and Robert could do about it. The only positive thing is that they are both okay. But the cars are severely damaged, so we are facing an additional challenge, with the Monaco race already coming up next weekend. Of course it is a huge disappointment to have our worst season start ever on a weekend where we really had a good car and so much more would have been possible. A big thank you to the team for their hard work – and this is a moment where we will stand together and focus on the challenges ahead. We don’t have much time to look back anyway, we have to concentrate on the work that needs to be done for Monaco. There we will hopefully be able to come back strong and make up for some of the points lost here.”