Porsche Cup Brazil: Cecilia Rabelo returns to the Sprint podium, secures pole in endurance round

After her breakthrough first class victory at Portimão, Cecilia Rabelo once again stepped onto the podium in Porsche Cup Brazil's Sprint Challenge with a remarkable performance in Race 2 at Estoril, where she charged into second place in class in the closing stages - before securing the pole position in Endurance Challenge.

Photo credits: Rafael Gagliano

After her breakthrough first class victory at Portimão, Cecilia Rabelo once again stepped onto the podium in Porsche Cup Brazil's Sprint Challenge with a remarkable performance in Race 2 at Estoril, where she charged into second place in class in the closing stages.

Rabelo is contesting her first season in sports car racing after a successful transition from single-seaters. Following two years in the Brazilian F4 Championship—where she made history as the first woman to claim a pole position in the series—Rabelo gained her first taste of GT machinery toward the end of the 2024 season in the Porsche Endurance Challenge Brazil, immediately impressing at the wheel of a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup. For 2025, the young racer committed full-time to the Porsche Cup Brazil platform, joining the Sprint Challenge category aboard the #98 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup entered in the Sport class.

Her rookie campaign began strongly at Velo Città, where she secured top-ten overall finishes and stood twice on the class podium. A difficult second round at the same venue saw her speed go unrewarded due to misfortune, but she bounced back at Interlagos, once again breaking into the overall top ten. Her momentum carried into the first Portuguese leg of the championship at Portimão, where she delivered a breakthrough performance with her maiden class victory in Race 1, followed by a second-place finish in Race 2.

The championship then returned to Portugal for the fifth round at Circuito do Estoril, a track that made history for Brazilian motorsport as the site of Ayrton Senna’s first Formula 1 victory in 1985. Porsche Cup Brazil had first visited Estoril in 2024, and returned in 2025 to mark the 25th anniversary of the category.

Rabelo quickly learned the circuit, setting the 11th fastest time in practice, 1.5 seconds from overall pace-setter Daniel Neumann and fifth in the Sport class. In Thursday’s qualifying session, Caio Chaves secured pole position ahead of Neumann, while Rabelo lined up from the fourth row in P8 overall and fifth in the Sport class, alongside José Neto.

At the green flag, Rabelo had a great launch, surviving the busy first corner to gain a position. She then had to defend hard from William Araujo but managed a clever switchback to retain seventh with determination. At the end of the opening lap, she held seventh overall and fourth in class.

On lap two, chaos struck as Araujo and Hermann crashed out at Turn 1. Rabelo showed sharp awareness to avoid the incident and held position as the safety car was deployed. When racing resumed with 16 minutes to go, more drama unfolded at Turn 1: Marques missed his braking point and plowed into the pack, eliminating several cars. Once again, Rabelo reacted brilliantly to avoid the carnage and emerged fifth overall, still fourth in class, under another safety car.

After a quick clean-up, racing resumed with 12 minutes remaining. This time, the restart was clean, and Rabelo immediately went on the attack. She overtook José Moura Neto for third in class with a decisive move just a few corners later and then closed quickly on Neumann.

But with six minutes to go, her progress was unfortunately halted as Moura Neto crashed into the back of her car, sending Rabelo into a spin. Though she managed to rejoin, her chances of a third consecutive podium were gone, and she dropped to the back of the pack. Another safety car followed.

With just three minutes on the clock, the race restarted, only for a major three-car crash at Turn 1 to eliminate Arruda, Castro, and Neumann. Right behind, Rabelo was attacking hard to recover ground but was caught up in another incident not of her own making, when Souza and Simão collided directly ahead, leaving her nowhere to go. The race ended under caution, and Rabelo was classified 14th after an unlucky finish to what had otherwise been a highly promising first race at Estoril.

On Friday, Rabelo lined up for the second sprint race of the weekend—the tenth race of the season—determined to make up for the missed podium. Starting eighth overall, she slotted into ninth at lights out and immediately put pressure on Moura Neto. Quicker by a couple of tenths, she made her move on lap 3 to take eighth overall. Moura Neto attempted to fight back into Turn 1, but Rabelo held firm.

A safety car was then deployed after separate incidents for Rafa Brocchi and Leonardo Hermann. At the restart at the end of lap 6, Rabelo had a strong getaway and closed in on Lucas Locatelli for position in the Sport Challenge class. She applied relentless pressure, braking later and closing in, though finding a way through proved difficult.

At the same time, she had to defend from the recovering Moura Neto, who forced her to hold her line on lap 8. This cost her some ground to Locatelli, but she regrouped and launched a spectacular clean move on the inside of Turn 9 on lap 11.

Just a few corners later, she seized another opportunity when Mario Delara ran wide into the gravel, promoting her to sixth overall and second in the Sport Challenge class with only a few minutes left. A late off for Claudio Reina triggered the safety car with one minute to go, freezing positions. Rabelo thus crossed the line sixth overall and second in class, returning to the podium with a superb drive.

She now sits fourth in the Sport Challenge standings, with one round to go.

The Estoril weekend also featured an endurance round, where Rabelo shared driving duties with Pietro Rimbano. The pair set a 1:42.339 lap to claim pole position in both the Challenge and Challenge Sport categories. In the three-hour race, however, a technical issue denied them a chance at victory, but they still salvaged a solid top-five finish in the Challenge Sport class.

Photo credits: Rafael Gagliano