Lena Knötzl gains seven places in class with strong recovery drive at Imola

In the third round of Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse, Lena Knötzl gained seven positions in her class during race one, thanks to a brilliant start and great defensive moves at Imola.

Photo credits: DNA Photographers

In the third round of Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse, Lena Knötzl gained seven positions in her class during race one. After the start, she demonstrated great defensive moves, as well as strong overtaking skills.

Lena Knötzl started her Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse campaign at the Red Bull Ring driving for MS Racing in Class 21 of Open GT group, which is open to the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup cars with ABS and traction control. She scored a class second place in race one, after a perfect start and brilliant defensive manoeuvres.

Her weekend at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari began on Friday with the private test sessions. Knötzl steadily adapted to the difficult Italian circuit, improving her lap times with every session. The trend continued to Saturday’s free practice, where she tested both qualifying, and race pace. The young driver finished FP2 in third position, showcasing her good pace and ability to fight at the front of the Class 21 field.

The start of qualifying, which was split into two groups due to the large number of cars competing, was delayed, but as soon as the green flag waved, Lena Knötzl went out of the pits. After the first few laps the young Austrian sat in P10 of the Class 21 leaderboard, with a 1:47.487 lap time. She was able to go even faster, with a 1:46.994, but other drivers improving meant that the MS Racing driver dropped to P11 in the timing sheets.

The red flag was displayed on track with around 12 minutes to go, as Sadamoto Takahashi found himself in the gravel outside of Variante Alta. After 4 minutes the session resumed, but Knötzl did not go out on track anymore. She fell to P12 in the classification, and after another red flag, which lasted three minutes, the session ended with the Austrian driver classified fourteenth overall, and twelfth in Class 21. After adding the results of the other group, Knötzl was classified in eighteenth place out of twenty-seven Class 21 competitors.

The first race at the Imola Circuit was chaotic from the very beginning: on lap 1 Knötzl was able to advance five positions overall into P22 overall and P15 in class. Her progress was however stopped by a safety car, which was deployed on lap 2 due to Sebastian Schmitt spinning in the last corner. The German got going again and the race restarted on lap 4.

Knötzl remained in her twenty-second position overall. The green flag conditions did not last long, as on lap 5 another neutralization was brought out. It lasted just a lap, and the race recommenced on lap 7. 

Knötzl had a good restart, keeping herself close to the back of Takahashi’s car, and two laps later the young Austrian firstly went down the inside of Tosa to get past Takahashi, and on the same lap she overtook Manuel Zlof in the first Rivazza corner. After that, she started closing in on Sarcinelli, but she was not able to overtake the Italian, as the safety car appeared on track for the third time that race.

The race resumed, with time for two more laps to be completed. It was not a successful restart for Knötzl, as she lost a position to Mekvabishvili, but after a big accident in Variante Alta the race was red-flagged and the results from lap 11 were used as official race results.

The MS Racing driver finished the race in P20 overall, and P13 in the Class 21. After a disappointing qualifying she was able to gain a lot of positions during the races thanks to her amazing race start and overtaking manoeuvres. Despite being entered to race in both races of the weekend, the Austrian did not appear at the start of race 2.

Despite setbacks, Knötzl proved her potential with decisive overtakes and strong race pace—momentum she’ll look to carry into the next Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse round, at Monza on 17–19 July.