Porsche Sprint Challenge Brazil: Cecilia Rabelo charges from 19th to Sport class podium in Portimão
- RACERS
- 22 hours ago
- 5 min read
Cecilia Rabelo once again showcased great speed in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Brazil, recovering from misfortune in Saturday's race to claim another Sport class podium with a spectacular charge through the field on Sunday at Portimão.
Cecilia Rabelo once again showcased great speed in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Brazil, recovering from misfortune in Saturday's race to claim another Sport class podium with a spectacular charge through the field on Sunday at Portimão.
Despite seeing a likely class victory disappear because of a late puncture while comfortably leading her category, the young Brazilian responded with one of the drives of the weekend, climbing from 19th on the grid to finish eighth overall and third in the Sport class to maintain her championship lead.
The third round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Brasil season marked the championship's first overseas event of the year and a return to Portugal's Algarve International Circuit, a venue that already held special memories for Rabelo after she secured her first class victory there during the 2025 campaign.
The weekend also came shortly after another busy period for the Brazilian, who has combined her domestic Porsche programme with a dual campaign in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge in North America, most recently competing at Mid-Ohio.
After a superb start to her second full-time Porsche Sprint Challenge Brasil campaign, Rabelo arrived at Portimão as the leader in the Sport class standings. The young Brazilian, who transitioned to GT racing after competing in Formula 4, had enjoyed a near-perfect opening phase of the season, beginning with a double class victory at Interlagos before adding second- and third-place finishes at Velo Città.
Having stood on the podium in every race so far in 2026, Portimão presented another opportunity to strengthen her title challenge on a circuit where she had already demonstrated her racecraft.
From the opening laps of practice, Rabelo immediately looked comfortable around the demanding Portuguese circuit.
The fast-flowing layout appeared to suit both her driving style and the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup machine, and that encouraging form carried directly into qualifying.
The first qualifying session proved exceptionally competitive, with Rabelo immediately placing herself inside the overall top ten. Her opening representative lap of 1:49.997 elevated her to ninth overall and third in the Sport class with five minutes remaining.
Continuing to improve as the session progressed, she lowered her benchmark to 1:49.706, climbing another position overall and comfortably advancing into the decisive top-ten shootout.
Her first flying lap in the final session, a 1:48.928, immediately placed her fifth overall before she extracted even more pace on her final attempt, stopping the clocks at 1:48.539, as she climbed to third overall and, most importantly, secured pole position in the Challenge Sport class, putting herself in the ideal position to fight for victory in Saturday's opening race.
Starting from the second row of the overall grid and on Sport class pole, Rabelo made another excellent launch when the lights went out. Positioning her Porsche on the inside line into Turn 1, she retained third overall through the opening sequence of corners as the leading trio immediately attempted to break clear from the rest of the field.
Behind her, closest Sport class rival Guper initially looked ready to mount an early challenge, but Rabelo quickly established control of the category battle. Within only a few laps, Guper slipped behind two Challenge-class competitors, allowing Rabelo to build a comfortable advantage in the Sport class.
Freed from immediate class pressure, the Brazilian could instead focus entirely on the overall podium fight. Demonstrating excellent pace, she began closing onto Gerson Campos ahead and steadily increased the pressure for second overall. Soon the race evolved into a thrilling four-car battle for the outright victory.
With Pedrosa and Campos fighting intensely at the front, Rabelo remained glued to the back of the leading pair, waiting for an opportunity to capitalise on any mistake. As the race reached its midpoint, she had successfully shaken off Neumann behind, reducing the fight to three genuine contenders for the overall win while maintaining complete control of the Sport class.
Neumann however managed to close the gap again, forcing Rabelo to briefly switch from attacking to defending. Recognising that the overall battle was secondary to her championship ambitions, she defended intelligently, unwilling to risk unnecessary contact while comfortably leading her class.
However, disaster struck when only a handful of corners later, Rabelo suffered a puncture with 7 minutes remaining. The sudden issue immediately destroyed her hopes of victory, forcing her to limp slowly back to the pit lane. Following an unscheduled pit stop, Rabelo rejoined deep in the order, now P20 overall and fifth in the Sport class.
Although she managed to overtake Ricardo Zylberman before the finish to recover to P19 overall, more than 20 seconds separated her from the next car ahead, and there was little more she could realistically recover before the chequered flag. Rabelo crossed the line 19th overall and 5th in the Sport class.
Despite the result, her consistency across the opening rounds meant she still retained the class championship lead with 77 points.
Sunday presented an entirely different challenge. Because of Saturday's result, Rabelo lined up 19th on the overall grid, leaving herself with work to do if she hoped to rescue another podium.
And indeed she immediately set about doing exactly that.
When the lights went out, Rabelo produced a great start and aggressively but cleanly picked her way through traffic, carving through the midfield over the opening laps to astonishingly climb from 19th to 12th overall while already reaching 5th in the Sport class.
Soon afterwards she overtook another competitor to move into 11th overall before rapidly closing onto Marco Mascari ahead in the battle for class positions.
A podium, which had looked highly unlikely before the start, was suddenly becoming a genuine possibility.
Another opportunity arrived when Mascari became stranded in the gravel with around 15 minutes remaining. The incident promoted Rabelo into 10th overall and 4th in the Sport class before the Safety Car neutralised the race.
At the restart, she wasted no time and executed another decisive overtaking move, passing Neto Heil to climb into third in the Sport class and 9th overall. Unfortunately, another Safety Car quickly interrupted her progress following further incidents deeper in the field.
When racing resumed again with only five minutes remaining, Rabelo immediately resumed attacking; she attempted an ambitious move into the hairpin but had to slot back into line, carefully avoiding contact. Only a few corners later yet another incident triggered another Safety Car period, again halting her momentum just as she was preparing another attack.
By this stage she was already pressuring Guper for second place in the Sport class. The race eventually resumed for one final green-flag lap. Once again Rabelo executed a superb restart and swept past Guper, before further chaos erupted ahead as several cars battled fiercely for the overall victory.
As one car spun at the hairpin, drivers behind had to take evasive action and Rabelo avoided the incidents, briefly climbing to eighth overall. Although Guper ultimately managed to edge back ahead before the finish in the class order, Rabelo still crossed the line eighth overall and third in the Sport class.
Despite the setbacks, a superb recovery drive brought another podium finish, and Rabelo leaves Portugal still in command of the Sport class championship as the Porsche Sprint Challenge Brasil heads back to Brazil. The series will now in fact return to Interlagos on 5–6 September.
