­ Second place overall and ProAm victory in the Carrera Cup at Imola

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BLACK FALCON celebrated several podium finishes at the fifth and sixth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland (PCCD) in Imola. Junior driver Loek Hartog achieved the best result of the season so far for BLACK FALCON on Sunday with second overall. Carlos Rivas was unbeatable in the ProAm classification and crossed the finish line in first place in class on both days.

At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Loek Hartog (#4) started the fifth round of the PCCD season from pole position for the second time in his career. Hartog led the race for most of the way, before a safety car period just before the end bunched up the field once more. After a successful re-start, Hartog struggled with severely weakening tyres in the final laps of the race and had to let three competitors go. After finishing fourth on Saturday, the 19-year-old BLACK FALCON junior driver started from second position on Sunday. Loek drove a strong and flawless race in which he was even able to easily keep the two championship leaders of the PCCD at bay and secured second place overall, his best result so far this season.

Reigning ProAm champion Carlos Rivas (#6) continued to dominate in Imola. After first place in free practice, the Luxembourger secured the best grid position in the ProAm classification twice in qualifying. He then celebrated his fourth success in the fifth race on Saturday afternoon with a start-finish victory. On Sunday, Rivas also crossed the finish line as the best ProAm driver after another trouble-free performance. However, a faulty rear wing screw connection was discovered on his car during the technical post-race inspection. Although the screw connection did not result in a competitive advantage, Rivas' car was subsequently taken out of the classification in accordance with the rules.

Sören Spreng (#5) travelled to Imola with a lot of momentum after his second place in the fourth round at the Red Bull Ring. The ProAm driver from Hemer made a solid start to the weekend with third place in free practice. In the fifth race of the season on Saturday, Spreng fought his way up from sixth on the grid to fourth over the course of the thirty-minute race. On Sunday, he crossed the finish line in sixth place in the ProAm standings. Spreng's car, like Rivas' car on Sunday, was retrospectively withdrawn from the classification for the same infringement of the rules.

Timo Frings, Head of Motorsport at BLACK FALCON:
"On the one hand, we are highly satisfied with the strong performance of our drivers, but on the other hand, we made a mistake as a team in the preparation for Sunday's race, for which Carlos and Sören were severely punished. I would like to emphasise that it was a careless mistake and we did not gain an unfair advantage. Since our first participation in 2017, we have always passed all follow-up checks at the PCCD without a hitch. We will now analyse the issue calmly and then return to full attack next weekend at Zandvoort."

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