Rollercoaster opening round for Alexandra Vateva in PCC Benelux at Spa
- VIVIEN STREBELOW
- 16 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The first weekend of the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux held plenty in store for Bulgarian driver Alexandra Vateva, as she battled for the overall top 10 in Race 1 and was unfortunately taken out in Race 2 while in contention for the Rookie podium after a promising performance.
The first round of the 2025 Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux season took place at the famous Belgian racetrack Spa-Francorchamps. With plenty of action, the series offered many stories, and one of them was Bulgarian driver Alexandra Vateva. Joining the grid with Q1 Trackracing, Vateva delivered a very strong first race—before bad luck struck in Race 2, taking her out through no fault of her own.
Joining the 22-car grid was the first-ever female driver in the series: Alexandra Vateva, who had already made history earlier in the year as the first woman to compete in the Porsche Cup Middle East with Lechner Racing, where she secured multiple class podiums and an overall top-five finish in a preparation program leading into her PCC Benelux campaign.
The free practice sessions started strong for the young driver. Despite missing pre-season testing at Spa, she quickly adapted to the car and track, placing P4 and P5 in class across the sessions.
Showing even better pace in qualifying, Alexandra wasn't able to fully demonstrate her potential due to some mistakes and ultimately qualified P6 in class and P16 overall in a very tight and competitive field:"With some mistakes from my side in qualifying I couldn’t show my potential, so I had to do it in the races", she commented.
Pole in the Rookie class went to Hjelte Hoffner (MDM Motorsport), while Robin Knutsson (NGT Racing) took overall pole and led the field into Friday’s opening race. Bertrand Baguette (D'IETEREN LUXURY PERFORMANCE) would start Saturday’s race from pole, based on the second-fastest lap times from qualifying.
Race 1 largely went Knutsson’s way, as he led from pole through a chaotic race and defended his position to take victory ahead of Jaap van Lagen (Team RaveArt), Domas Raudonis (Team GP Elite), and Baguette. The battle for the win was intense within the four-car lead group, with the Swedish driver ultimately prevailing.
The Rookie class delivered just as much excitement. Hjelte Hoffner led from the start but was quickly passed by Frank Porté Ruiz, who had a stellar launch. Mees Muller locked up heavily and ran wide, rejoining the race just ahead of Vateva. Although Alexandra was clearly quicker, she was stuck behind the Dutch driver for the remainder of the race, unable to find a way past despite relentless pressure.
Directly behind them, Nikola Milikovic (Spark Racing Team) locked up and went straight into Daan Van Kuuk (Team GP Elite), triggering a Safety Car after the Spark Racing Porsche couldn’t make it back to the pits. The race resumed with about six minutes to go—just as more drama unfolded. After the restart, several cars spun or made contact, though all rejoined. Half a lap later, Sam Jongejan was pushed into the barriers, prompting another Safety Car that ultimately ended the race early.
Milan Marczak claimed victory in the Rookie class ahead of Hoffner and Muller. Porté Ruiz, who had originally finished third, was penalized post-race and dropped to fifth in class. Alexandra Vateva was classified fourth in class and eleventh overall—in a strong debut result in her first race in the series.
Race 2, held on Saturday, was led by Baguette into another thrilling contest. The Belgian driver maintained the lead despite pressure from Nick Ho (PG Motorsport) and Van Lagen. Ho scored the maximum points, as Baguette was a guest driver and ineligible for championship points.
The Rookie class, however, was marked by misfortune for Alexandra Vateva. Running another strong and clean race with good pace and engaging battles, she was on course for a clear rookie podium result until disaster struck during the third restart.
After a Safety Car intervention, Dréke Janssen suffered a technical failure and his car unexpectedly surged forward, crashing into Vateva’s Porsche and ending her race prematurely. Thomas Kangro was also caught in the incident, though he was able to continue.
Marczak made the most of the race again, taking his second Rookie win of the weekend ahead of Porté Ruiz and Muller.
"I had great battles on track but unfortunately I got taken out in Race 2 after a very strong performance fighting for the Rookie podium", Vateva recalled. "Nothing I could’ve done to prevent it, but we keep our heads high and take the lessons learned into Round 2 in Zandvoort next month."
After the opening round, Alexandra Vateva sits fourth in the Rookie standings and fifteenth overall—a promising yet bittersweet first round that nevertheless sets the tone for more podium hunts ahead.
The next round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux will take place at Zandvoort from 6th to 8th June as part of the DTM support program.
