The German Porsche junior Sven Müller (Team Project 1) posted the fastest qualifying time for round eight of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in Italy’s Monza. On the high speed circuit, the 22-year-old rookie snatched pole position with a time of 1:51.958 minutes, relegating Kuba Giermaziak (PL/VERVA Lechner Racing Team) and the series leader Earl Bamber (NZ/Fach Auto Tech) to positions two and three respectively. “My first pole position in the Supercup is awesome. Prior to the race I threw myself into analysing the data and then in qualifying I braked a fraction of a second later in every corner,” said the beaming Müller.
With a sunny 25 degrees Celsius on the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the qualifying session turned into a hot pursuit. Before the start, Giermaziak was a little apprehensive about with the 5.793 kilometre circuit, “I’ve never driven at Monza so I’m feeling a bit tense,” stated Giermaziak. After 20 minutes with the Italian Matteo Cairoli (Antonelli Motorsport) topping the time sheets, things began to heat up ten minutes before the end of the session. Porsche junior Klaus Bachler (A/Konrad Motorsport) sat at the lead for a short time, until Bamber shunted him from the top of the list. With one minute to go, Müller turned the ultimate best time. In the eight qualifying sessions so far this season there have been six difference drivers on pole.
The grid line-up promises some gripping action for the race. After seven of the ten Supercup rounds, Bamber lies in the lead with 107 points ahead of Giermaziak (104). Lining up alongside pole-sitter Müller in the 460 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for Sunday’s race, Giermaziak is ahead of Bamber. “We’ll witness a very, very interesting race here. It’ll be hard to get away from Earl,” Giermaziak predicted. Bamber is also only too aware just how tight the competition is. “We had a bit of a problem in qualifying, so I’m pleased with third on the grid. It’ll be exciting that’s for sure,” said the Porsche International Cup Scholarship driver Bamber. Taking up the race from the fourth grid spot is Germany’s Michael Ammermüller (Walter Lechner Racing Team) ahead of the Austrian Porsche junior Bachler. “Fifth on the grid is a good position to head into the race. You can overtake here in Monza and I’m looking forward to that,” explained Bachler. With 66 points, the 23-year-old lies third in the overall classification and in theory still has a shot at the title.
Stuttgart resident Philipp Eng (A/Team Project 1) takes up the race from position six. 18-year-old Matteo Cairoli, the current series leader of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia, managed to post an impressive seventh in qualifying. Silverstone winner Clemens Schmid (A/Walter Lechner Racing Team) posted eighth. Porsche junior Connor de Phillippi (USA/FÖRCH Racing by Lukas Motorsport) starts from sixteenth, with his Porsche junior colleague Alex Riberas (E/Mc Gregor powered by Attempto Racing) on 22nd. “I was a little too eager in qualifying and overdid it,” explained Phillippi. Riberas struggled with the track conditions: “I didn’t manage to find a slipstream when my tyres were at their best. Afterwards it was too late to set a good time.”
