Malaysia. It was an outstanding battle filled weekend at the 5.4km Sepang International Circuit for Team StarChase and Philip Hamprecht as they continue their fight for the 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Championship title. Two rounds were held under scorching conditions at the Malaysian circuit where Hamprecht maintained his Championship challenge bringing home 28 points to remain second on the leaderboard. 

Weather played an important part throughout as temperatures soared to a high of 60^oC at one point during the weekend intensifying the challenge. It was a closely run qualifying session where Hamprecht, who set a time of 2:08.107 and 2:08.121, placing him 5^th and 4^th for Rounds 9 and 10 respectively.

It was a fierce battle amongst the top drivers in Round 9 as Hamprecht, who started the race from 9^th, caught up to the leaders at the start. His manoeuvre over Chris van der Drift on the opening lap promoted him to 4^th. From there, the duo were caught in a fierce battle, with Hamprecht keeping his head down to defend his position beautifully all the way to the chequered flag.

With nothing to lose, Sunday’s Round 10 saw Hamprecht take a more radical approach at the start attempting an attack from the outside line at turn 1 to try for the lead. The courageous move did not bear results leaving Hamprecht in 5^th for most of the race. With just six laps to go, the German took a chance and made a great move on 3^rd-place starter, Tanart Sathienthirakul, to claim 4^th.

After the tough race weekend, Hamprecht commented, “it was not a bad weekend. We did struggle a bit in qualifying and just did not get the time we needed but we had good race pace, especially in Round 10. Tyre wear did not play a big role here during the race. At the end of the day, I just wanted to take more points to overtake Chris, yesterday I got 2 points over him but today he made 2 points over me. So by the end of the weekend, we are still where we started. It wasn’t the perfect weekend but at least we didn’t lose too many points, we started this weekend 19 points behind and we are leaving 19 points behind. I am looking forward to the races in Shanghai and the team and I will do our best to fight for the Championship.”

Team StarChase remains 2^nd on the Championship with 176 points as they head to the final two rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia scheduled to be held at Shanghai International Circuit where members of StarChase Group will show up to cheer for Hamprecht and the team.

Mr. Robby Niermann, Chief Operating Officer of StarChase, “This was a challenging weekend. We didn’t have a clear advantage with our starting grid, but Philip has shown great driving skills throughout. With the hard work of everyone on the team we will head to the final rounds as a strong Championship contender. Philip and Team StarChase are fully prepared for the final races in Shanghai and fight for the Championship right to the last minute.”