During the second testing session of the Iberian Supercars round at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, part of the Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade and Supercars Jarama RACE, teams and drivers started to reveal their capabilities, igniting a fierce battle for the top spot on the timesheets.
After the morning session, most contenders provided a glimpse of their potential on the Portimão track in the afternoon, with several cars taking turns at the top of the leaderboard.
The first to set the pace on fresh tyres were Mathieu Martins and Manuel Gião, who placed the Racar Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 at the top of the times, but soon after, Bernardo Sousa and Carlos Vieira in a Toyota GR Supra GT4 from Toyota Gazoo Racing Caetano Portugal, Gonçalo Fernandes and Francisco Mora in a Porsche Cayman RS CS from Veloso Motorsport, and Jorge Rodrigues and Patrick Cunha in an Audi R8 LMS GT4 from the same northern-based team also held the top position.
In the end, the Porsche duo clinched first place over their Audi teammates by a mere 0.034 seconds, leading the GT4 Bronze category, with the top eight drivers separated by just 0.6 seconds.
César Machado and Jan Durán, without claiming the lead, finished third in their Toyota GR Supra GT4, just ahead of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Caetano Portugal duo and their GT4 Pro division rivals for the overall GT4 title, Manuel Gião and Mathieu Martins. The top three pairs were separated by only 0.2 seconds.
In GT4 Am, brothers Miguel and André Nabais, driving a Porsche 718 Cayman RS CS for Speedy Motorsport, were once again the fastest, strengthening their bid for the division title against Keith Gatehouse and Igor Sorokin in a Mercedes AMG GT4 from NM Racing Team, who took second place.
Beatriz Correia, in a JC Group Racing Tea-run Cupra TCR, continued to lead the Touring car category, outperforming Henrique Moura Oliveira and Henrique Ventura Oliveira, the fastest of the young pairs in FPAK Junior Team’s Ginetta G40s. José Correia was absent from today’s testing but will return tomorrow to join his youngest daughter at the wheel of the Spanish built car.
Still competing for the Iberian Supercars’ Cup title, Marcus Fothergill and Dave Benett made their mark with a Tockwith Motorsports-prepared Porsche 911 Cup, outperforming the similar model from Monteiros Competições, sending a message to Rui Miritta that they are in the Algarve to contend.
Mikkel Kristensen and Manuel Cañizares led the GTX division in a Chefo Sport Ligier JS2R, beating Steve Kirton and Henrique Cruz in a Ginetta G55 from Tockwith Motorsport by four-tenths of a second, with British racer among the division title contenders.
With testing sessions complete, all attention now shifts to tomorrow’s qualifying sessions, which begin at 16:10 and can be followed on the official Instagram of the competition. Before that, a free practice session will take place at 08:20.
On Sunday, the races are scheduled for 9:00 and 16:55, with both available for viewing on Spain’s DAZN and Portugal’s A Bola TV and the official YouTube channel.
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