British driver Harry King failed to win last year’s Porsche Supercup (3rd overall) due to two retirements, despite being the most successful driver in 2023 in motorsport’s most prestigious single-make series. He is still driving for Lechner Racing, by far the best team in the category, and he will be doing his utmost to dominate this season. But it’s going to be long and hard, against some very strong rivals…
King set the fastest time in free practice on Thursday in Monaco, but he will have to watch out all weekend, in particular, for two Dutch drivers: Jaap van Lagen, entered by the Italians of Dinamic Motorsport, and above all Larry ten Voorde, the double Porsche Supercup champion (2020 and 2021), who won last Sunday in Imola… ahead of Harry King.
Ten Voorde left Lechner Racing this winter to become the leader of the French Schumacher CLRT structure. He remains a prime rival for King, once again this weekend in Monaco. The top three in this free practice session, King, van Lagen and ten Voorde, are all within just three-tenths of a second of each other. This promises an eventful qualifying session on Friday, from 6.45pm, which will round off a day of battles on all levels. The ultimate rewards will be the best places on the starting grids.
The interesting thing about this 2nd round of the Porsche Supercup, of the eight scheduled this season as curtain raisers to the European Formula 1 Grands Prix, is that in 2024 there is a whole new generation of drivers, as young as they are talented, determined to shake up the established order of recent years, like the last two champions of the discipline, aged 20 and 25.
During Thursday’s session, the ‘rookies’ also made their presence felt. There were four of them in the Top 9, including Frenchman Victor Bernier (8th), entered by another French team, Martinet by Alméras. So just one piece of advice: if you’ve got grandstand seats, stay until the end of the day on Friday to watch the Porsche Supercup qualifying session. You won’t be disappointed…