Riccardo Leone Cirelli and Mattias Bjerre Jakobsen win at the Red Bull Ring. All those in contention for the title of Junior champion make it onto the podium. Michael Herich is the best-placed Trophy driver.
Riccardo Leone Cirelli (17/ITA) and Mattias Bjerre Jakobsen (18/DEN, both BWT Mücke Motorsport) won the eleventh and penultimate race of this season’s Prototype Cup Germany at the Red Bull Ring. The Mücke youngsters took the lead on the opening lap and never looked back. “My start was not so good, but the subsequent battle for the lead with Danny Soufi was great,” said Cirelli, who started the race from pole position. Cirelli soon won the duel with Soufi (22/USA), who together with Pavel Lefterov (27/BUL, both Konrad Motorsport) has already been crowned champion, and proceeded to pull clear of the rest of the field. “I put my foot down at first, then tried to look after the tyres. Mattias then took over the car for the second stint and did a really good job.” However, his Danish team-mate had a few problems in his first few kilometres. “The wheels locked twice at the start of my stint, but later on I was able to push and control the race. I am delighted with the win, having had our share of misfortune this season.” Sven Barth (44/Eberbach) and Maxim Dirickx (21/BEL, both Aust Motorsport) finished second in the Austrian region of Styria, ahead of Maksymilian Angelard (18/POL) and Mattis Pluschkell (21/Elmenhorst, both BWT Mücke Motorsport) in third.
The start of the opening race of the weekend saw Soufi race into the lead, but he was unable to stay out in front for long. Just a few turns later, Cirelli’s Duqueine had found a way past the Konrad Ligier and was heading off into the distance. Soufi, in turn, was able to pull clear of his pursuer Barth, who was holding off Angelard. The leading quartet reached the pit stop window in that same order and, after the mandatory stops, nothing had changed. Jakobsen now led the race, with Lefterov second, ahead of Dirickx and Pluschkell. The Bulgarian immediately set about closing the 5.5-second gap to the leader. He managed to get within a second of Jakobsen, but the gap then remained constant, before actually increasing again. With two laps remaining, Lefterov rolled out of the race with a damaged drive shaft. That left Dirickx and Barth to inherit second place. They were joined on the podium by Pluschkell and Angelard in third place.
Fourth across the finish line was Zino-Ferret Fahlke (18/Hergiswil, Konrad Motorsport), followed by Michael Herich (48/Brühl) and Mikkel C. Johansen (38/DEN, both Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsport) in fifth. Herich was embroiled in a thrilling battle with Thomas Ambiel (45/Eppingen, Rinaldi Racing) for first place among the Trophy drivers, and eventually came out on top. Shortly before the finish, Ambiel also found himself coming under pressure from Miro Konopka (63/SVK, ARC Bratislava), and was ultimately unable to fend off the Slovakian. That left Konopka to take sixth place on his Prototype Cup Germany debut, ahead of this year’s Trophy champion Ambiel. Marcel Kopp (30/UAE) and Keanu Al-Azhari (17/UAE, both Mühlner Motorsport) crossed the finish line in eighth place. Soufi and Lefterov were ninth in the final classification, despite not finishing the race.
In the Junior competition, the top three have moved even closer together ahead of the final race on Sunday afternoon; Pluschkell and Angelard now lead Dirickx by just four points, with Cirelli and Jakobsen a further seven points back. In the battle to finish runner-up in the overall standings, Pluschkell and Angelard now have a five-point advantage over Barth and Dirickx, who in turn find themselves just two points ahead of Cirelli and Jakobsen. In the Team competition, the gap between leaders Konrad Motorsport and their closest rivals BWT Mücke Motorsport has also shrunk. 17 points now separate the two teams. The second qualifying session takes place at 08:45 on Sunday, before the final race of the 2025 season gets underway at 16:35. Both will be streamed live at youtube.com/adacmotorsports.
Sven Barth (runner-up): “Shortly after the start I found myself wedged in behind Riccardo. I lost my momentum, and that allowed Maksymilian to pass me. However, I reclaimed third place in turn three. That was important too, as overtaking would have been much harder later on. With Riccardo and Danny much faster than me out in front, I focussed more on what was happening behind me and on securing third place.”
Maxim Dirickx (runner-up): “Sven drove a really great stint. I took over the car in second and, personally, had a rather boring race. I tried to drive consistently and not make any mistakes. Because I managed to achieve that, Mattis was never able to get close enough to me to pose a threat. In the end we were lucky and moved up to second place when Pavel was forced to retire.”
Maksymilian Angelard (third): “We are still struggling with the car. It is not running as it should do. We will now try to solve the problem and then give it our all again tomorrow. Third place today was definitely not enough. We wanted more. Particularly when we see that our sister car won the race.”
Mattis Pluschkell (third): “That was a tough race. I was almost eight seconds behind Maxim when I took over in the Duqueine, and I was unable to close the gap – especially as Maxim knows how to drive fast. I tried everything and pushed like a beast, but it was not enough. The rear of our car was skidding too much and had hardly any grip.”
