With two consecutive opening race weekends in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe, Robin Knutsson finally grabbed his first podium in the second race in Estoril, Portugal.
Last weekend, the premiere was held in Portimao and it was a bit of a failure and a wake-up call for WestCoast Racing and Knutsson, who only managed 12th and 13th place from the series’ first race weekend.
- In Portimao, I unfortunately failed to qualify and made it very difficult for me. Looking at just the race in Portimao, I’m satisfied, the speed was good and the overtaking was good, it’s just a shame that I didn’t qualify, says Robin about the premiere races.
This weekend at the Estoril circuit, things went more Robin’s way, even though the speed in qualifying was again not to my liking. His starting positions were 8th in race 1 and 10th in race 2.
Unlike in the premiere, Robin now got the starts and advanced straight away. With precise and aggressive overtaking, he was on his way to a possible podium finish already in race 1. Unfortunately, he made a mistake on a restart after a yellow flag episode late in the race, fell back and rolled in 12th at the finish.
The second race was initially a copy of the first. Robin made a good start and started to advance. With a third of the race left, he was up to third place! Despite heavy courting from behind, Robin managed to hold onto the podium at the finish and finally took his first podium finish in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe:
– I made a stupid mistake that cost me dearly when we were 4th in race 1. Luckily, there was one more race where I could get some revenge. I felt confident on every overtake, working my way up to 3rd from 10th place felt like a really good way to end the weekend. I’m looking forward to Valencia now! concludes Robin after this weekend’s races.
The two remaining races in the series are both in Spain on consecutive weekends
February 23-24 Valencia (E) March 1-2 Barcelona (E)
The race can be watched LIVE and afterwards on the series’ YouTube channel.
