Zöchling leads the championship after podium at Norisring

Konrad Motorsport is on top of the standings in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany: With a hard-fought third place on Saturday and a sixth position on Sunday Christopher Zoechling took the lead in the drivers’ championship. His team-mate Christian Engelhart secured the leading position of the Konrad squad in the teams’ championship with a fifth place. Thanks to Rolf Ineichen’s success the team from Verl also covers the top-position in the B-class.

Christopher Zöchling had unfinished business with the Norisring: In last year’s race he was on a sensational third place just before the end of his only second weekend in Germany’s fastest one-make-cup – until the accelerator cable burst in the last lap and avoided the big surprise. But in this year things went a lot better for the young Austrian. Already in qualifying he showed his ambition for a top-position with the fourth place.

In the first race on Saturday Christopher Zöchling managed to improve to the third position already in the second lap. In a long battle with his fellow countryman Philipp Eng he defended his podium-position until the end. “It was a really hard fight,” the 26-year-old Konrad-Driver reported after the podium ceremony.  “In the first laps I even had the second place in mind but had to focus on the defense afterwards.” Also in Sunday’s rainy race he showed a good performance and finished in sixth. The valuable points helped the multilingual youngster to claim the top-position in the drivers’ championship. “A fantastic feeling,” he showed his happiness. “I will travel to my home-race in Spielberg as the leader.”

Christian Engelhart was not that lucky this weekend. In Saturday’s run the man from Kösching was thrown out of the race while he was lapping a slower opponent – he had no chance. On Sunday he led the race in the “Franconian Monaco” for a long time but had to be satisfied with position five. “The race started really well,” he explained. “Maybe I was pushing too hard in the beginning, therefore the tires lost a lot of performance. I had to give up four positions without any resistance.“ In the championship the experienced driver now covers the fifth position – only nine points behind his team-mate Zöchling. Thanks to the strong team performance from Zöchling and Engelhart Konrad Motorsport now also leads the teams’ championship.

The top of the B-class is still in the hands of Rolf Ineichen in the third green and white Konrad-Porsche. On Saturday the fast man from Switzerland claimed his sixth season victory in the eighth race. One more reason for Franz Konrad to draw a positive conclusion: “We are now leading all three championship categories – you cannot expect a lot more,” he summarized the standings.

The next race for his team already takes place next weekend: In Silverstone (ENG) the fourth run of the international Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is on the schedule. In the German Carrera Cup there is a five-week summer break, until the season will be continued in Spielberg on the first weekend in August.