Frey and Kapadia take Formula One support race victories
25th October 2021
The Sports Prototype Cup’s two official support races at the FORMULA 1® HEINEKEN GRANDE PRÉMIO DE PORTUGAL 2020 delivered action throughout the field, thrilling 25,000 fans ahead of the F1 Grand Prix.
The races, exclusively for the Revolution A-One Trophy class, saw experienced Le Mans drivers Michel Frey and Alex Kapadia take a win apiece. Kapadia's win in Sunday's race also confirmed him as the top ranked Cup driver of 2020.
Race One: Frey shows his class
Front row qualifiers Michel Frey and Morten Dons were eased aside on the long downhill run to turn one by Richard Wells. In his first full season of car racing, the rally driver made a stunning start to lead the two Le Mans experts. However, a mistake half way around lap one resulted in a chain reaction of incidents and a red flag.
The restart saw Peter Brookes joining from the pitlane to begin an impressive fightback, but at the head of the field Frey led from start to finish under immense pressure from two-time 2020 winner Dons.
Jesse Menczer, in his first ever Revolution drive, put in a calmly assured performance to take the final podium position.
The battle for 4th was feisty, with Marcello Marateotto leading another A-One debutant, Steffen Goerig and experienced historic racer, Jamie Constable. Roger Green and Joaqim Penteado joined this scrap with
just two seconds covering fourth to eighth place for much of the race.
The battle was broken up by Green spinning. Marateotto looked resolute in fourth place despite the attentions of Constable. The two touched and this promoted Ron Fletcher to seventh after a charge in his Batmobile liveried car, passing ten cars. Another stellar star overtaker was Dominik Dierkes, climbing to his second top-six result of the season.
Race Two: Kapadia crowned
Alex Kapadia took over Dons' Mike Smith Motorsport/Breakell Racing Revolution for race two and led throughout from pole. It wasn't an easy run to victory with James Abbott challenging hard at the start to sit it out with Kapadia through turn one.
Once again, Wells was in fighting form, taking advantage of the lead battle to force his way through to second, carrying Menczer with him. Frey should have been part of this battle but a spin after contact with Wells put him to the back of the pack. The Swiss sliced back through the field to seventh at the flag.
The rest of the race was marked by a superb battle between Wells, Menczer and Abbott, who found his way past both to take second. The battle for third went to final lap with Wells holding on a repeat of his Snetterton podium after a brilliant side by side duel through the undulating final curves of the Algarve track.
Behind, Constable and Penteado fought for fifth with another charge from the back taking Fletcher into the top ten.
Abbott took the B.R.M. Speed Award for fastest race lap of the weekend.
A showcase for 2021
This Formula One event was a launchpad for the 2021 Sports Prototype Cup which will feature the Revolution Trophy, BARC Radical SR3 Trophy and the Sports Prototype Open class. Full details of the 2021 calendar will be released in the coming weeks, featuring a mix of UK and premium international events.
Image gallery: https://www.sportsprototypecup.com/2020-portugal-gp
Top Eight finishers from both races:
