Jaxon Evans has finished eighth in the fifth round of the Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup around Silverstone battling his way back through the field, having fallen to tenth after an early race Safety Car restart.
Once again pole position yielded another race victory as Ayhancan Guven led every lap on his way to his second Supercup career win and his first in 2020.
Evans was en route to scoring pole position for the race in the race’s sole qualifying session only 24 hours earlier, setting purple first and middle sectors before an uncharacteristic mistake ruled out his final run and any chance of a front row start and a possible opportunity to challenge for the race win.
Lining up on the fourth row of the grid, Evans made a steady start to maintain eighth on the run along the Wellington straight while fellow Porsche junior Guven shot into an early lead.
The race was the neutralised after a heavy crash involving young Australian racer Jordan Love and Moritz Sager at Brooklands. Love was tagged into a spin as a flurry of drivers ran wide while dueling for opening lap supremacy before an unsighted Sager collected Love, putting an end to both drivers’ race.
Off the restart on Lap Four, Evans was heavily engrossed in a wild kafuffle for the minor points positions which was briefly settled when Leon Kohler and Marius Nakken came to blows directly in front of the lurking Kiwi, resulting in Evans falling to ninth.
Up front, Guven was barely clinging to his race lead. The Turkish driver was put under investigation by race control for a Safety Car restart infringement while title rivals Larry ten Voorde and Dylan Pereira began hounding at the rear of the 22-year-old.
On Lap 10 Evans made amends for dropping a position earlier in the race to elevate himself ahead of Kohler to regain eighth and immediately went on the attack on Rookie Championship points leader Marvin Klein and Florian Latorre who both sat less than one-second up the road.
Evans closed to within four-tenths of Latorre on the final lap but ultimately couldn’t muster an overtake hanging on to his eighth-place start at the conclusion of the 13-lap affair.
Guven resisted a late challenge by Ten Voorde who never offered anything more than the odd half-hearted lunge while Dylan Pereira continues his vice-like grip in command of the championship with another podium result in third.
Evans and the rest of the Supercup fraternity will now prepare for round six of the championship from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
