The “King of the Red Bull Ring” rose to full form at a fantastic day for BWT Lechner Racing at their Austrian home race at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg: In front of a huge crowd of more than 100 000 spectators at the scenic circuit in the Styrian Alpes, Dylan Pereira from Luxembourg won the fourth round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup 2022 ahead of Laurin Heinrich and his BWT Lechner Racing teammate Bastian Buus, who claimed his first Supercup Podium ever after a very strong race. Harry King in P4 completed the very impressive team result for the Austrian squad, which at the half time of the season now leads in all three championships: Pereira, the first driver to win two races in this season, took over the lead in the overall classification from Larry ten Voorde, who had to retire after a collision shortly before the end of the race, while Buus and BWT Lechner Racing extended their advantage in the rookie and team championship.
"It really was a fantastic weekend, it went perfectly right from the start," said a delighted Pereira, who had already been fastest in free practice on Friday, secured pole position on Saturday and then safely dominated the race on Sunday from start to finish. "I finally had a really good start again, and was then able to pull away a bit right away and concentrate more on not making any mistakes, paying attention to the track limits, which is always very important here so as not to receive any penalties."
The 25-year-old once again showed why he is called the "King of the Red Bull Ring", putting in a superior performance, in which even two safety car phases with subsequent restarts did not throw him off course. After all, he now celebrated his sixth victory here, the second in the Porsche Supercup, with four successes coming from the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. "To stand at the top of the podium here at the home race of my team BWT Lechner Racing is of course something very special once again - it's very important for the whole team, the sponsors, the partners.... Now it's a question of taking this form into the second half of the season.”
Bastian Buus made it up to P3 from starting ninth on the grid, and was over the moon to have reached his first Supercup podium: “I knew it was coming some day, but I didn´t really expect it to happen already today, after the mistake I made in qualifying. I was able to overtake three cars in the early stages of the race which was important to be in the right position if something would happen in the front. Which actually was the case when Klein and ten Voorde crashed – and I was even able to make use use of the chaos to get by my teammate Harry King for P3”, said the 19-year old youngster from Denmark.
King, who had started from P2, was slightly disappointed to only finish fourth, “but I had a really bad start and once you are caught up in the field it gets difficult and you are very vulnerable. So I had to be content with bringing home valuable points and contributing to a fantastic team result.”
BWT Lechner Racing Team Principal Robert Lechner celebrated the success together with his brother Walter: “It is a fantastic day for us, I am very proud of the whole team and our drivers. Dylan dominated the weekend in am impressive way, Bastian showed his huge potential and Harry brought in a good result for the team even if he was a bit unlucky today. Nothing better than being able to celebrate at home!” Walter Lechner remembered the day 19 years ago, “when I scored the first Supercup podium for Lechner Racing here in Spielberg – and now we have so much more reason for celebrations again. Fantastic!”
Michael Schöch, BWT Lechner Racing Teammanager, was also very happy: “With this result, we are back to the very top again everywhere, no longer the hunters but the hunted. As a team, we showed a great performance, especially considering a lot of our opponents had more experience here due to also doing the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. Now we have to continue our hard work to stay on top, using the current momentum also in the races to come.”