A successful weekend in Portimao, Portugal, that was the crowning glory for Marco Werner and ChromeCars in the 2022 season with historic Formula 1 vehicles. Werner set the best time in qualifying with the ChromeCars Lotus 87B used by Britec Motorsport with 1.38.4 seven tenths ahead of Steve Hartley in the McLaren MP4/1 with 1.39.2 followed by Martin O’Connell/Williams FW08C with 1.39.5.
As expected, Werner took the lead in race one and controlled the field of Masters Racing Legends. Werner’s lead on lap seven was a good five seconds, followed by the trio of Martin O’Connell, Steve Hartley and Mike Cantillon in the Williams FW07C. In the three-way battle between O’Connell, Hartley and Cantillon, the situation came to a head on lap seven and the order changed. Cantillon immediately launched an attack on the leader Werner and surprised him on lap 13 and took the lead. But the race organizers did not hide the fact that Mike Cantillon more than exploited the track limits six times to catch up. On lap 12 Marco Werner took the lead again when Cantillon had left the track again on Turn 1 and Werner outbraked him on Turn 2. However, Cantillon overtook Werner again at the start and finish from the slipstream and took the lead again. Werner was then able to stay on Williams’ heels and won race one by 2.8 seconds thanks to Cantillon’s five-second penalty. “I was really surprised where Mike suddenly came from. I had given it my all beforehand and my tires were pretty much gone. I couldn’t counter, just follow. But he used everything the track had to offer…» said Werner after the race.
In run two, Werner now had to fight his way forward from row two with the starting order reversed. Lukas Halusa/Williams FW08, who had started from row one, was literally ambushed by Cantillon and Werner on turn 5. The three Williams and the ChromeCars Lotus stormed towards Turn 5. Cantillon led the exit on Turn 5 ahead of Werner and Halusa. Mike Cantillon and Marco Werner quickly pulled away from the rest of the field and showed a hot duel for the lead. At the finish, Cantillon was ahead of Werner and Halusa, which was enough for Marco Werner to finish runner-up in the championship. “We didn’t expect that anymore, because we didn’t originally want to drive here in Portimao, but of course it’s even nicer to be able to finish so well in the championship after the Monaco success, even though we didn’t drive four races have”, says Marco Werner “it was a nice season that comes to a nice end here. Thanks to ChromeCars, who let me drive such great cars this year and thanks to Britec Motorsport for the effort to always bring these cars well prepared to the start”
