Richard Westbrook

FIA GT Budapest

A scintillating performance from Richard Westbrook gave the Porsche star victory in the latest round of the FIA GT Championship at the Hungaroring on Sunday, and brought him back into contention for the title.

Thanks to a daring last-lap pass on title rival Gianmaria Bruni’s Ferrari, London-based Westbrook was able to secure a thrilling third win of the season for the ProSpeed Competition Porsche 997 RSR he shares with French ace Emmanuel Collard. Two-time Porsche Supercup champion Westbrook laid the foundations for a win by securing pole position. Or at least he thought he had, until the car failed scrutineering for a bizarre reason and was pushed to the back of the grid. In order to keep a control on power outputs, cars in the FIA GT Championship run with air restrictors.

To check a car’s air restrictor complies with the regulations, they are subject to a stall test. If the car stalls, it is running the correct diameter air restrictor. Unfortunately, the ProSpeed car didn’t stall. It turned out a plug had fallen out of the restrictor while Collard was demonstrating the car in a parade in Budapest city centre before the meeting started. But Westbrook, driving the first stint in the two-hour race, charged through the field. “It was an excellent race,” he said. “There were about seven cars all in a train and I picked them off one by one. When I passed Bruni, they gambled on bringing him in early after 40 minutes.” Westbrook pitted after 65 minutes, and Collard emerged in second place, behind Bruni’s team-mate Toni Vilander. When Westbrook got back in for a short final stint, he came out of the pits in third place, behind another Ferrari.

Richard soon picked that car off and set about charging after Bruni. “Twelve minutes before the end of the race I was nine seconds behind,” he said, “but I was taking a second a lap out of him and I was pretty confident. I wasn’t really sure when the race was going to end, but then the team came on the radio and said, ‘One lap to go - it’s now or never! Last lap! Last lap!’. There was only one overtaking opportunity on the circuit, into Turn 1, and I took a dive and made the move stick. It was just really good - one of those brilliant races to be part of.”

It was a great turnaround for ProSpeed after a couple of disappointing results at Oschersleben and Spa, especially as the team’s Porsche - due to success ballast and the weight penalty for having two top-graded drivers - was running as heavy as it has done all season. “We went in a different direction on set-up after our first two wins,” said Richard. “It didn’t really work out, so we just went back to what we knew.”

Now, with just three rounds left, Westbrook and Collard lie two points behind Bruni and Vilander in the championship, with the next race coming at the new Algarve circuit in Portugal. “We did a test there at the start of the year,” said Westbrook, “but it’s difficult to tell who’s going to be quick. What we do know is that this championship is going to go down to the wire as a grandstand finish.”