Richardson Racing maintained its strong start to the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux season with a brace of podium finishes in round two at Hockenheim.
The Northamptonshire-based team made the trip to Germany for the Festival of Dreams eager to replicate the front-running form it showed in round one at Spa, where it scored victory on its first weekend in the series.
Things started well in the opening practice session of the weekend with Dutch teenager Robert De Haan setting the fastest time, and team-mate Micah Stanley slotting into third place.
The pair were again right at the sharp end in FP2 with De Haan again setting the fastest lap and Stanley securing P6, and the strong form continued into qualifying as De Haan scored a front row start and Stanley ended up in seventh.
Retaining his position when the lights went out for the start of race one, De Haan soon chased down the leader and slid up the inside to take the lead from Flynt Schuring at the hairpin.
From there, Robert was able to maintain his position at the front of the pack – despite the safety car backing up the field – as he took victory ahead of Ariel Levi, setting the fastest lap in the process with a new lap record.
Although he dropped a place at the start, Micah was soon making up ground as he fought his way back into the top six, before unfortunate contact dropped the Monaco-based driver back to 19th spot.
The second race of the weekend kicked off with Robert on pole, where he briefly lost the lead on the run down to turn one before once again reclaiming position at the hairpin.
Despite suffering with a stomach bug that had developed overnight, Robert would go on to lead every lap and again posted the fastest lap but unfortunately for the teenager, a five-second penalty for a track limits infringement in the closing stages dropped him to second in the final results .
Micah’s hopes of a strong result would end on the opening lap when – after a storming start that saw him make up four places – contact at the hairpin saw him sustain damage to his car that led to him coming in to retire.
The pair will next be in action this coming weekend when the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain heads to Oulton Park
Micah Stanley, #5 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
“The race weekend started well with some good pace in practice and I looked good for a top four in qualifying before being dropped back a few places towards the end.
“Race one was a tough race with a poor start from my end, but i still had the pace to match the top three and I think we could have been in the mix for a podium without the contact late on.
“In race two, I had a very good start to go from P9 to P5 through the first few corners, but heavy contact at the first hairpin made me have to retire the car. It’s a weekend of what might have been.”
Robert De Haan, #46 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
“I was really happy with the speed we showed, with two fastest laps and two victories on the road – and it was a mega weekend to help celebrate 75 years of Porsche.
“After a really good result in race one, it was a shame to get a time penalty in race two that dropped us back to second, but we’ve shown again what we can do and now focus on Oulton Park this weekend.”