It was the shortest Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race in Monaco ever – but it brought a very well deserved victory for BWT Lechner Racing driver Robert de Haan, who was able to crown his perfect weekend in the narrow streets of the Principality with a win after already having been fastest in free practice and qualifying. It was the seventh win in the history of Lechner Racing in Monaco, two years after the last one with Harry King in 2023.
De Haan already won the first start, but the race had to be red flagged immediately after a big crash involving quite a few cars after Turn 1, which unfortunately again took Marvin Klein out of the race, who got pushed from behind and became a victim of the following chain reaction.
Clearing the track and provisionally repairing the damaged armco took nearly half an hour. As a consequence, due to the very tight time table at Monte Carlo, with the preparations for the Formula 1 Grand Prix coming up, the race hat to be shortened to four laps, which also means that only half points were given. Now with a rolling start after one lap behind the Safety-Car, de Haan again kept the lead rather unchallenged, even being able to pull away immediately and also setting the fastest lap of the short race, before climbing on the top step of the famous Monaco podium, celebrating with the obligatory champagne.
BWT Lechner Racing Team Principal Robert Lechner: “Congratulations to Robert de Haan for his first Supercup win. To celebrate this in Monaco is very special. He had an incredibly strong weekend from the free practice on Friday onwards, through qualifying, which was already very decisive for the final outcome, to the race today. No matter how long the race would have been, nobody would have been able to catch him today. It was also a great reward for the fantastic work of the whole teams since Imola – a big thank you for that again. But of course I am also feeling with Marvin, who for the second time in a row was not even able to complete one lap in the race.”
Robert de Haan: “A win is a win – and it was really a great weekend for us, we were always very fast from the very beginning. It feels great to be a Monaco race winner. I want to thank the whole team for the great work they did to rebuilt my car after Imola and provide me with a rocket ship again. That was just the race we needed, me, and the whole team. Now we are already looking forward to Barcelona!”
Marvin Klein: “What shall I say, it's just so disappointing to be taken out of the race again with nothing I could do about it, especially here in my home race. The only thing I can rely on is that we have the speed, so just hoping for better days to come and already focusing on Barcelona.”
BWT Lechner Racing Team Manager Michael Schöch: “There are some mixed emotions, as of course we are very happy with Robert for his win, but having severe damage to Marvin's car is quite a big blow for the team. It means a lot of work again, we have to do a copy and paste from what we had to do after Imola, built up a new car again. Hopefully it will work out as well as it did last time so that we can be very competitive with both cars again in Spain.”