Title for Pereira, victory for Buus – what a day for BWT Lechner Racing
What a great day for BWT Lechner Racing at the Royal Park in Monza: Under a blue sky and a warm late summer sun, Dylan Pereira secured the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup drivers´championship 2022, while his teammates Bastian Buus and Harry King with a win and a third place let the Austrian squad finish the season on an absolute high. On track it had even been a 1-2-victory, but King later received a questionable 5-second penalty for what had seemed to be a normal race incident with ten Voorde and Heinrich.
“I was waiting to win a big championship for quite some time, so now it is really a dream come true”, said Pereira, beaming all over his face. “During the cool down lap I got rather emotional in the car, it´s such a great feeling when you have done it, such a relief. The pressure is always there before – even when it might look rather settled from the outside.” The 25-year-old from Luxembourg had finished third on track behind his two BWT Lechner Racing teammates, but a late 3-second time penalty due to having gained an advantage by leaving the track dropped him back to P5 in the final classification. “At the first moment I was a bit upset – but today is such a great day, so forget about it, I just want to enjoy the title now. Thank you to everybody who has supported me on my long way so far, especially to BWT Lechner Racing, Robert and Walter and everybody else in the team, to my family, my partners and friends. You all have contributed to make all this possible.”
Race winner Bastian Buus had started from P2 on the grid, but already managed to take the lead from pole setter Marvin Klein during the first lap, before the Safety-Car had to come out for three laps due to a midfield crash. “That was of course very important, and after the re-start I could get away a little bit while the guys behind me were fighting each other. But during the last laps, Harry came very close, I had to stay really focused not to make the slightest mistake”, the 19-year-old from Denmark, who also won the rookie classification in all eight races, was ever so happy. “It is great to finish the season in such a way – thanks again to everybody at BWT Lechner Racing for the fantastic support over the whole season.”
Harry King, who had set the fastest time in qualifying, but had to start from P4 due to a grid penalty from Zandvoort for the collision with Jaap van Lagen, showed his impressive speed by making it up to P2, finishing just four tenth of a second behind Buus – until the strange penalty dropped him back to P3: “I think it was quite a good performance, of course it would have been nice to get my first Supercup win. It was very close, but between teammates you just have to be a little bit more careful to start an attack – and Bastian made no mistake that would have given me a chance. But it was a superb first year with BWT Lechner Racing – and for sure there is more to come in the future.”
Somebody else in the team had reason to celebrate: “Apart from winning the team, driver and rookie championship, we also claimed the title of “Mechanic of the Year” for us. Congratulations to Andoni Lurumbe, whom I also see as a representative for the team´s excellent performance,” said BWT Lechner Racing Team Manager Michael Schöch. “I am really proud of him. Every team nominates one mechanic for this, and then the nominees vote amongst them to define the winner.”
For BWT Lechner Racing Team Principal and CEO Robert Lechner, it was a fantastic end to a fantastic season: “Congratulations to Dylan, who showed an impressive performance over the whole year and really deserves the title with his three victories. But I don´t want to forget our two other drivers, Bastian and Harry showed today how fast and mature at the same time they already are at their young age. I can´t wait to see so much more from them in the future. In such a happy day I would like to take the opportunity to thank everybody, the whole team, the drivers, all our partners and especially BWT, who made this success a reality. We are already looking to 2023 when we will be back in full strength.”