PCC Germany: Emely de Heus secures first rookie podium with personal best in home race

Emely de Heus secured her best finish to date in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany with her first top-20 overall result and maiden rookie podium at the end of a strong second race at Zandvoort, as the former F1 Academy racer overcame extremely tricky weather conditions to climb through the field in her home race.

Photo credits: Porsche Motorsport

Emely de Heus secured her best finish to date in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany with her first top-20 overall result and maiden rookie podium at the end of a strong second race at Zandvoort, as the former F1 Academy racer overcame extremely tricky weather conditions to climb through the field in her home race.

De Heus is making good progress in her rookie season in one of the most competitive one-make GT series in the world. After debuting at Imola with promising pace that went unrewarded, she took further steps forward at Spa-Francorchamps in the second round. Driving for ID Racing, the 22-year-old Dutch driver battled for the rookie podium in Race 2 and continued to build confidence at the wheel of the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup car.

The first woman in over a decade to contest a full season in the German Porsche Carrera Cup, De Heus transitioned to GT racing after several years in single-seaters, including campaigns in Spanish F4, W Series, and most recently F1 Academy across 2023 and 2024. Now part of the Porsche Talent Pool, she is steadily progressing through each round—and the third event of the season on home soil was further proof of that upward trajectory.

Weather conditions added another layer of difficulty at Zandvoort, with constantly changing weather, rain, and wind making for a very challenging weekend. De Heus was 27th fastest in Friday’s practice, followed by two qualifying sessions in the afternoon.

In Q1, De Heus initially set a 1:39.727 to place 29th, but a red flag interrupted the session with four minutes remaining. On the restart, she improved to a 1:39.408, moving up to P27 on her final attempt. Q2 followed shortly after. She opened with a 1:43.880, good enough for P13 before another red flag. After the restart, De Heus improved to a 1:38.425, eventually finding two more tenths to secure P23 on the grid in a stronger second session.

Heavy rain overnight led to a wet race on Saturday morning; the drizzly conditions before the start prompted two formation laps, with visibility and grip proving difficult. Starting from P27 on the drier side of the grid, De Heus avoided early risks and settled into P29 as the pack made it through Turn 1 without incident, though the field saw plenty of battles in the treacherous conditions.

She soon moved ahead of Shahin and Wallenstam, and gained another position when Spreng went off on Lap 2, triggering a Full Course Yellow. Back in P27, De Heus improved her pace and pulled away from Shahin, gaining another place when Mikel Azcona ran wide at Turn 1. She continued to lower her lap times, breaking into the 1:42s and matching the pace of the group ahead.

De Heus set a personal best of 1:42.096 and gained another spot when Sebastian Freymuth encountered issues on the penultimate lap. Though she couldn’t close the gap to Essmann and Greif ahead, De Heus completed a clean and composed race in P25—gaining two positions and finishing fifth among the rookies in extremely challenging conditions.

On a rainy Sunday morning, Race 2 of the weekend began under even more difficult weather, with heavy rain and strong wind at the seaside venue. Starting P23 on Row 12, De Heus aimed to stay out of trouble and capitalize on others' mistakes.

At lights out, many drivers struggled from the wetter inside line, causing chaos at Turn 1—but De Heus stayed out of trouble and emerged in P22 as the race was neutralized by the safety car with several cars stranded.

The race restarted at the end of Lap 3, and more chaos followed as multiple cars made contact—Van Eijndhoven and Norden both retired after unrelated collisions. De Heus avoided the incidents once again and emerged in P18, running third in the rookie class before another safety car was deployed.

With 11 minutes remaining, racing resumed: De Heus held P19 closely behind Michael Schrey, while defending from a recovering Sebastian Freymuth. Though Freymuth made his way past on Lap 10, De Heus regained the position when Flynt Schuring went off at the banked Turn 3. She then increased the pressure on Schrey and both drivers overtook Ahmad AlShehab, as the drying track allowed for faster lap times in the 1:50 range.

De Heus passed Michael Essmann on Lap 14 and continued her charge, gaining P16 on the final lap when Theo Oeverhaus dropped down the order due to damage—capping off an action-packed race.

With a seven-place gain from her starting position, De Heus not only secured her first top-20 finish but also claimed her first rookie podium in a hugely positive home race weekend for the 22-year-old.

“It’s a small step up from the last race weekend. Now it’s important to keep improving for the upcoming race weekends,” De Heus said. “Still a long way to go, but we will get there.”

Emely has now collected 62 points in the rookie classification and will aim to continue her momentum into the next round, held at the iconic Norisring street circuit in support of DTM from 4–6 July.