A PODIUM IN THE AUSTRIAN MOUNTAINS FOR CLÉMENT MATEU

12th July 2022 Supercup
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Just one week after the Silverstone meeting, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup once again followed the F1 circuit to make a stopover in Spielberg at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. From England to Austria, the drivers have seen the landscape change drastically, the circuit is next to the Styrian mountains, which does not diminish the charm of this postcard

The atmosphere in Austria was the same, with record crowds and a track completely different from Silverstone, which nevertheless remains quite technical and interesting with few corners, but all essential to complete the perfect lap. Clément Mateu managed to get the best out of his car to finish once again on the podium, which he has not left since the first round of the season.

Spielberg offers a podium to Clément Mateu

The weather played tricks on the protagonists this weekend with rain came on Saturday night, but which did not disrupt any of the sessions, all of which were run on a dry track. Clément Mateu got his bearings in Free Practice before improving his own mark in qualifying, he will be on the grid in 5th position in the Pro/Am category.

The start of the race is always tricky here in Austria, with the first right hand corner almost at a right angle where many drivers take liberties with the track, risking hitting an opponent on the way back to the middle of the tarmac. Clément Mateu took the best possible flight, progressing to second place in the Pro/Am category.

At the front of the race, the Pro drivers are playing hard to get and an incident leads to calls for the first Safety Car coming out. As the marshalls cleared away the debris on track, the second start was given, a critical phase in a race where it was necessary to remain focused. The Montpellier driver kept his race pace at the front to remain second in his class before a new Safety Car went on track.

On the restart, it will be a bit complicated for Clément Mateu who will lose some places on his opponents to concede and move down to third place before slipping down to fifth. But the CLRT driver did not give up and kept pressure on his opponents on the track to take third place again, which he kept until the checkered flag.

 

"We had a good free practice session in Austria, but unfortunately we were a little bit off in qualifying. I started 5th in my category and in the end I did one of the most solid and successful races, with a very good start. I spent most of the race in second position behind Sager, who was racing at home.

"The race was interrupted by two safety cars, I got trapped for two laps on the restart of the second safety car, I lost a place and found myself in third, I was even relegated to fifth but I managed to come back to third. In the end, the pace was there in the race, it's just a shame that I made a small mistake in qualifying and on the last lap of the race. It's still a podium, we're third in the championship, it's halfway through the season, there are four races left, it's up to me to do the job."

Clément Mateu, HEXIS manager and driver of the Porsche 911 GT3 CUP

Results race 1

1 - P. Sager (Dinamic Motorsport) 30’02”620
2 - R. Lindland (Pierre Martinet by Alméras) + 1”407
3 - C. Mateu (CLRT) + 3”061

 

Standings drivers Pro/Am

1 - R. Lindland (Pierre Martinet by Alméras) 90 pts
2 - P. Sager (Dinamic Motorsport) 76 pts
3 - C. Mateu (CLRT) 71 pts

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