Jaxon Evans has come up shy of a second Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup race win after the Kiwi lost the lead in a race restart after a red flag was waved for a hefty start line accident.
Despite the silverware it was a disappointing result for Evans who could well have challenged for the victory after stealing the race lead at Turn 1 moments before the red flag which led to a restart with the Kiwi promoted to pole.
With the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya notoriously difficult to overtake on, when Evans lost the lead to Larry Ten Voorde on the race restart he was unable to muster a move, settling for second at the chequered flag.
Initially, an even start between Evans and ten Voorde put the Kiwi on the preferred outside line at Turn 1 and he muscled his way into the lead just as the Safety Car was deployed almost immediately due to a crash on the starting grid.
French driver Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer had stalled off the line and received a glancing blow by an unsighted Daan van Kuijk who tore away the front left wheel of Simmenauer as the pair came to a halt along the pitlane barrier.
An uncannily similar accident happened on the other side of the grid in a messy start which had four drivers eliminated in the space of mere metres.
Evans queued behind the Safety Car for three laps before race control waved the red flag to suspend proceedings and give the track marshals sufficient time to safely remove the stricken cars and clean the debris.
A little under ten minutes later did the field venture back out on track to grid up for the second attempt at a race start which would be run over nine laps.
Evans was awarded pole position courtesy of his earlier overtake but would have to redo all of his hard work to keep ten Voorde at bay. But in a complete role reversal of the earlier race start, ten Voorde would wrestle his way ahead of Evans as the Kiwi relinquished the lead.
Erstwhile championship leader and BWT Lechner Racing teammate to Evans, Dylan Pereira, then began piling on the pressure behind in third. But a wild slide at the final corner at the end of the eighth tour saw the Luxembourger fall over a second adrift of his rival.
Florian Lotorre looked to pounce on Pereira’s unforced mistake, but he too struggled to find a way pass his rival, settling for fourth at the line.
Evans slowly reeled in ten Voorde over the final lap, slimming a one second margin in half but came up short at the line as the quick Kiwi collected his third podium result of the season. Ten Voorde meanwhile usurps Pereira for the lead of the championship with just two races remaining in Belgium and Italy.
Spa was a happy hunting ground for Evans last year in his debut Supercup campaign as it was the scene of his maiden series podium and the Porsche Junior will be aiming to replicate that success in two weeks time as he eyes another race victory.
The penultimate round of the championship is slated for 10.30 pm NZT August 30.
