Jaxon Evans’ hopes of winning the 2020 Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup championship has come to the end of its journey after the Kiwi finished fourth in the penultimate round from Spa-Francorchamps, unable to score the necessary points to keep afloat any outside chance of challenging for the crown.
Predictably, qualifying proved exceptionally tight with Evans settling for second just 0.019s off the fastest time. Though even more unsurprisingly was pole-sitter Ayhancan Guven clinging onto a lights-to-flag win as overtaking proved difficult for the front runners.
It was a tough result for Evans having demonstrated impressive pace in the early stages of the race, only to make a mistake on the penultimate lap while challenging for the lead to fall to third. A similar error would reoccur the following lap and Evans relinquished the final spot on the podium with a half-a-lap left to run.
Off the line, Evans and Guven made relatively even starts as the Kiwi slotted in behind his fellow Porsche junior. The entire field made it through Turn 1 unscathed as the jostled for position on the dash to Eau Rouge.
Evans had his BWT Lechner Racing teammate and championship protagonist Dylan Pereira lurking directly behind after Lap 1 as the top-three began to create a sizable margin over fourth-placed Florian Latorre.
It was an unusual predicament for Evans as his race pace was strong enough to challenge Guven over the opening laps. However, Pereira’s main title threat Larry ten Voorde had begun to make amends for a disappointing qualifying session and was running fifth, scoring a healthy haul of points ahead of the finale.
Nonetheless, Evans was relentless on his pursuit of Guven to sit underneath his rival’s rear wing at half-race distance with no sign of letting the race leader to break loose.
However, pushing beyond the limit of grip, Evans would fly off the road at Les Combes with a heavy lock-up two laps from home. He did manage to use the escape road to rejoin the race in second position but was hung out to dry at the next corner as Pereira slipped through.
Unfortunately, Evans likely flat-spotted the right front tyre and he was caught out again at Turn 12 on the final lap, losing the last podium result to Latorre.
Guven fended off Pereira for the victory while Evans settled for best of the non-podium finishers behind a fortunate Latorre.
Pereira now takes command of the points lead, holding a slim two-point margin over ten Voorde with the season finale at Monza slated for next weekend on September 4-6.
Realistically, Evans can still finish third in the championship if he has a strong result at Monza and finishes ahead of Guven.