Fourth round at the Monaco GP

Stuttgart/Monaco. Taking a pole to chequered flag victory at the fourth round of the Porsche-Pirelli-Supercup today Stphane Ortelli from Monaco climbed up the driver's standings to rank second place. This victory is the 31-year-old's best result of the current season. Ex-Formula 3000 man Wolf Henzler from Germany switched teams for the Monaco round and promptly rewarded his new outfit, Carsport Supercup Team Swiss, with second place. Under sunny Monte Carlo skies, Marco Werner, who won the Austrian round two weeks ago on the A1-Ring, started from tenth on the grid to clinch a podium finish in third. This result was enough to hold on to the overall points' lead.

His team mate Jorg Bergmeister, who took victory from the first two races of the season in Imola and Barcelona, retired in the 8th of 16 laps with a defective driveshaft. Starting from second on the grid, Sascha Maassen saw the chequered flag 12th. The Italian Alessandro Zampedri (fourth in qualifying) collided with Maassen during an overtaking manoeuvre. The two were unhurt.

Local matador Michel Neugarten avoided the fray of this turbulent race and worked his way up from 14th starting position to finish a commendable fourth ahead of Croatian Sinisa Kosutic. For both drivers these results are the best of the 2001 Supercup season to date. Invited to drive one of the VIP Carreras for the Monaco round, French Formula 3 champion Jonathan Cochet started from 16th and brought home sixth place - a stunning performance for someone who has never driven a closed sportscar let alone a Porsche.

Stphane Ortelli (MC, winner) "I don't want to say much today, except this: I would like to dedicate my win to two great Porsche drivers, Bob Wollek and Michele Alboreto. And today's mother's day so this is also for my mum. Thanks."

Wolf Henzler (D, second): "At the start Sascha Maassen held me up. Then when he was no longer in front of me, the track was covered in radiator fluid in places that some competitors lost after accidents and that made it slippery. But my car was just fantastic, and I was able to keep Stphane under pressure, until I was just 1.7 seconds behind."

Marco Werner (D, third): "Today I needed a cool head and a lot of experience. The race ahead of me was turbulent. I thought to myself I'll keep my nose clean and bring home some points. This worked and I'm happy."

Race Results: 1. S. Ortelli (MC, Kadach Tuning), 16 laps in 28:02.947 mins (=115.340 km/h) 2. W. Henzler (D, Carsport Supercup Team Swiss), 1.705 seconds behind 3. M. Werner (D, Infineon Farnbacher), 20.550 4. M. Neugarten (MC, Kadach Tuning), 25.024 5. S. Kosutic (CRO, Kadach Tuning), 25.628 6. J. Cochet (F, Porsche AG), 25.935 7. T. Bergmeister (D, MAT Racing Team), 27.176 8. G. Anapoli (I, Software AG Racing Team), 41.955 9. J. Hunter (GB, Martin Flitton Racing), 43.067 10. G. Frazier (USA, Kadach Tuning), 64.050

Fastest lap: Ortelli, 1:43.508 mins (=117.208 km/h)