Marco Giltrap began his weekend at Sepang in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia with a podium in Race 1 before charging to fifth from ninth on the grid in Saturday’s night race.
The Team Porsche New Zealand and EBM driver was the benefactor of a post-race penalty for Dylan Pereira in the opener, which elevated him from fourth to third.
He gained three positions with a blistering opening lap in Race 2 and took one more on Lap 4 while on his way to his second top-five finish of the round.
Giltrap qualified fourth for the opener and retained his position through the opening corners, only to drop to fifth mid-way through Lap 1.
Damage to Martin Ragginger, who sat second in the championship entering the round, and Lu Zhiwei on the opening tour ended with both cars parked up, bringing an early Safety Car.
Up front, Alessandro Ghiretti had hit the front ahead of pole-sitter Mathys Jaubert before the intervention. A fast-starting Dylan Pereira was third, ahead of Rodrigo Dias Almeida, who overtook Giltrap early.
However, Pereira’s launch was deemed too good, and a 10-second time penalty was given for a jump start.
Racing resumed on Lap 3, with the Team Porsche NZ entry making a big lunge on Almeida at Turn 1, only to run wide into the marbles, bringing sixth-placed Bao Jinlong into the equation. The Kiwi would fend off his advances before reapplying the pressure to Almeida ahead.
Over the following laps, the front five pulled clear of the field, and Giltrap was seven seconds to the good of Bao at the end of Lap 7.
A Lap 7 tyre failure for Liu Kai Shun left the straight covered in debris, and his car stopped at the pit exit, but the track remained green.
Giltrap finally got his man and climbed to fourth on Lap 10, getting a good exit out of the final corner and running side-by-side with his rival down the straight, holding the inside line into Turn 1.
The Safety Car was deployed again soon after when Li Chao stopped on track. The second delay saw the race go time certain, and proceedings would not resume, with the Safety Car leading the field across the line right as a sudden downpour descended on the circuit.
Ghiretti took the win ahead of Jaubert, with Pereira crossing the line in third but dropping to 16th once his penalty was applied, which promoted Giltrap to the podium.
There was redemption in the night race for Pereira, who got a great launch off the second row and hit the front as Ghiretti and Jaubert squabbled for the position.
He remained there until the chequered flag, keeping Jaubert at bay as the pair put over eight seconds on the field in an uninterrupted outing.
Ghiretti could not match his pace from Race 1 to remain with the front runners and finished a distant third, ahead of Ragginger.
Giltrap, meanwhile, made a fast start off the fifth row and climbed to sixth on the opening tour.
By the time he got past Nazim Azman for fifth on Lap 4, Ragginger was four seconds up the road, a gap he could not overcome. The 2023 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Champion matched the lead group’s pace initially to pull clear of Azman but faded late in the race to finish 8.4 seconds behind and just eight-tenths ahead of the #17 entry.
The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia returns for a third outing at Sepang at 7.55 pm NZST on Sunday in the form of a 43-minute + 1 Lap Endurance race.
Live coverage of the race can be viewed on Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific’s YouTube channel.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific
