WORLD WRAP: Bamber wins Porsche Supercup

Earl Bamber has clinched the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup title in his first full season in the one-make series.

Bamber, who recently completed back-to-back triumphs in the Asian Carrera Cup Championship, scored second place behind Michael Ammermuller (D/Walter Lechner Racing Team) to secure the crown.

The 24-year-old finished the season on 155 points, beating Kuba Giermaziak (PL/VERNA Lechner) who amassed 132 points.

The New Zealander validated his selection at the start of the year as the Porsche International Cup Scholarship driver with 200,000 euros backing accumulating two poles, seven podiums including two wins on his way to the title.

The Fach Auto Tech driver, who had based himself in Kuala Lumpur for the past couple of seasons, was praised for his consistency by junior driving coach Sascha Maassen.

“Earl deserves to be champion. He was consistently good over the season and has given me a great deal of joy,” Maassen said.

His team boss Alexander Fach expects big things from Bamber in the future.

“Earl is a hard worker with huge talent. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this guy,” Fach said.

Bamber also blitzed the field to claim the rookie Supercup title by a huge margin from Sven Muller.

Points standings after 10 of 10 races

Rookie classification

 Blancpain GT Series

Laurens Vanthoor clinched the coveted Blancpian GT Series title with a dominant double victory on the streets of Baku.

The Belgian GT ace, racing alongside Cesar Ramos in the WRT Audi R8, completed comfortable victories in both races at the Azerbaijan street circuit, which was enough to take the drivers title from HTP Mercedes driver Maximilian Buhk.

This victory gave Vanthoor his second major GT title having claimed the FIA GT Series championship for the same squad last season. Vanthoor’s WRT Audi squad also scooped the teams’ championship.

The title was decided when Buhk was forced to retire from Sunday’s main race following a collision with Vanthoor’s WRT team-mate Rene Rast, while team-mate Max Gotz was at the wheel.

Buhk only needed to guide his HTP Mercedes SLS to fifth or higher to secure the championship.

Andy Soucek and Jonathan Adam in the Beechdean Aston Martin finished the main race in second just 2.2s adrift of Vanthoor and Ramos.

The Phoenix Audi of Markus Winkelhock and Niki Meyr-Melhof claimed the final place on the podium in third.