A surprise guest in the A2 Series “Juan Manuel Fangio”, Claudia Hürtgen replaced Alex Birkenstock on Saturday morning, because the German driver had to return home for family reasons.

After quickly getting familiar with the front-engined Ferrari 246 dating back to 1960, she caused a sensation by achieving the best qualifying time. Starting on pole on Sunday, she resisted Tony Wood‘s Tec-Mec F415, a 1959 car, throughout the race, until it was stopped by a red flag, one lap from the finish, following a “pile-up” of three Lotus cars and a Connaught at the Antony-Noghès corner. The podium was completed by Spaniard Guillermo Fierro-Eleta (Maserati 250F).

Mrs Hürtgen had already won at the 2^nd Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, in 2000. A very experienced and eclectic driver, she won the German touring cars series twice (DTM Challenge 2003 and 2004) and the 24 Hours of Dubai in 2011. She has just relaunched her career by joining the Abt-Cupra team in Extreme E, the new category for electric SUVs racing in remote areas. What a driver!