Ten Voorde wins the championship.

There couldn’t have been a better place for the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup #GrandeFinale other than Monza with its nearly 100 years of motorsports history, top speeds of over 275 km/h in the 485 hp Porsche 911 GT3, and a front-pulling slipstream rumored to rival that of gravity. From the get-go, we had second in the standings #25 Larry ten Voorde (NED/Team GP Elite) on pole position edge ahead of leader #2 Dylan Pereira (LUX/BWT Lechner Racing), who after braking in curve 1 demoted himself to 4th. Action delivered!

And then came ten Voorde, transforming Monza’s Royal Park into a one-man show and impressively securing the overall title. A triumphal ride of the finest order, in which, with just two brief exceptions, he kept everyone at bay. This is how champions race.

Not to say that the victory was simply handed to him. Two times the safety car was sent onto the track. The first time immediately after the start and the second, right after the restart. The first accident between #12 Philipp Sager (AUT/Dinamic Motorsport) and #21 Clément Mateu (FRA/Pierre Martinet by Alméras) happened on the start/finish straight and ended the race for Sager before even reaching the first chicane. That was his second accident-related race retirement this season, the first being in Budapest. Shortly after the restart on lap 3, #16 Hugo Nerman (SWE/MRS GT-Racing) had an accident in Lesmo 1 due to #11 Jaden Conwright (USA/Dinamic Motorsport), who was unable to catch Variante della Roggia forcing him to take the emergency exit. While entering the track again, he hit Nerman who crashed into the tyre barriers. No penalty consequences were suffered by Conwright because he was forced to retire after a tyre puncture on lap 11 after running over the curbs in the Roggia corner.

And ten Voorde? He remained cool, calm and collected. At the actual start, #33 Florian Latorre (FRA/CLRT) attempted an outside attack into the first chicane, but his braking point was too late so he had to rejoin the field behind the Dutchman. At the first restart, the Frenchman calculated his braking point well, but ten Voorde blocked him on the inside track, and subsequently also blocked CLRT’s first Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup win.

Making a quick decision at the second restart, ten Voorde surprised the whole field and pulled away. Latorre immediately was under pressure from Pereira who had passed Rookie #3 Leon Köhler (GER/Lechner Racing Middle East) at the start and was in third. The Frenchman had to drive a defensive line, slowing down the entire field. The gap between the chasers and ten Voorde quickly expanded to one second, breaking off the slipstream – the Flying Dutchman was alone in front.

Even more bitter for Pereira, Latorre defended 2nd place using every trick in the book. He was unable to take up the chase with ten Voorde, nor could he allow Latorre take over. The gap continued to grow wider and wider: 1.0 – 1.5 – 2.0 seconds. Nothing was going to stop ten Voorde’s triumphant drive.

Holding on to second place, Latorre finished 1.887 seconds behind ten Voorde. This was Latorre’s second podium finish in a row for the Côme Ledogar team. Sadly for Pereira, things just got muddier and muddier. Not only did he lack speed in the second half of the race to keep on attacking Latorre – also Köhler managed to overtake, taking the last podium place and leaving the Luxemburger with fourth place finish.

Behind the front four, Porsche Juniors #22 Ayhancan Güven (TUR/Martinet by Alméras) and #1 Jaxon Evans (NZL/BWT Lechner Racing) battled it out for fifth position. Unlucky for Güven, his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup suffered a puncture in the last lap. Evans had already overtaken him and finished fifth, therefore securing the team championship for BWT Lechner Racing.

Behind him the drivers inherited positions accordingly: Rookie #4 Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (FRA/Lechner Racing Middle East) finished sixth; Fellow Rookie #6 Jordan Love (AUS/FACH AUTO TECH), finished seventh (his best result of the season), and secured him 10th place in the Overall Standings ahead of his experienced teammate, #5 Jaap van Lagen (NED/FACH AUTO TECH). #10 Marius Nakken (NOR/Dinamic Motorsport) gave his Italian team a strong home performance, as well as his second personal best of the season after Budapest: Starting from 14th on the grid, he made up seven positions.

Köhler managed to take the Rookie victory in Monza with his overall third place finish, putting him within striking distance of the Rookie Classification championship. But despite having a consistently strong season, it wasn’t enough for him to take the title.

On the other hand, #23 Marvin Klein (FRA/Martinet by Alméras) maintained his position in the Rookie Classification for quite some time. But it was the most experienced driver in the field who wound up making the decision to Klein's disadvantage. In the Variante Rettifilo, van Lagen pushed the young Frenchman off the track in lap 7 of 15. Klein fell back to 10th place behind Love.

Van Lagen received a 10-second time penalty, which pushed him back to 19th place, but that was no help for Klein. In fact, it was #24 Max van Splunteren (NED/Team GP Elite) who finished 13th and despite a less than perfect weekend in Monza, still won the championship in the Rookie Classification with a narrow 2-point lead. Overall, it’s been one of the strongest Rookie years the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup has ever seen.

The only championship in which the decision was made before Monza was the ProAm Classification. #20 Roar Lindland (NOR/Pierre Martinet by Alméras) crowned his season with his 25th victory in the series, followed by his teammates #21 Clément Mateu (FRA/Pierre Martinet by Alméras) and #19 Roland Bervillé (FRA/Pierre Martinet by Alméras).

Four Italian guest drivers – three of them successfully contested the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia (PCCI) – provided a special treat at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. #40 Gianmarco Quaresmini (ITA/Dinamic Motorsport) impressively held on to 8th place for quite some time but fell behind in the final laps. So it was 2019 PCCI runner-up, #41 Diego Bertonelli (ITA/FACH AUTO TECH) who made the best of his home advantage, taking ninth place overall.

With the eventful #GrandeFinale, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup ends its most compact season ever. In sporting terms, it has been the perfect preparation for the remaining events in the national Porsche one-make cups. Afterall, most of them are only now beginning their seasons, keeping racing fans around the world on tenterhooks this autumn.