Max Vidau has won Race 2 of the 2023 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia at a rain-soaked Albert Park.
The early evening race, which stared at 18:25 Melbourne time, followed a wild F3 practice session which saw a wet track provide an ample challenge for the young open-wheeler field, with several incidents and damage scattering debris over the Albert Park layout.
While grey skies and the wet track posed the threat of a pit lane or a Safety Car start for the Carrera Cup field, the race commenced as usual on the grid with Vidau starting P2 and winning the drag race to the first corner from pole sitter Hegde.
Vidau outmuscled Hedge’s challenge through the first turn to steal a march on the field, setting a blistering pace to put 1.5s on Hedge as the field crossed for the first lap. Walls, who won yesterday’s race – later declared a non-points event, which means he didn’t start today’s race from pole – was third.
Lap one saw yesterday’s Pro-Am ‘winner’ Sam Shahin tapped by Tim Miles at Turn 3, spinning both, which saw Shahin make a strong recovery before another off late in the race unravelled much of his progress.
While Vidau built up a significant lead over Hedge and Walls, with Maxwell next after a solid move on O’Keefe for fourth place on Lap 3, with Dale Wood next having a crack and making it stick to move into fifth.
Angelo Mouzouris had made impressive progress after starting 18th, sitting 13th by Lap 4.
Vidau’s lead was 4.5s by Lap 5, with a number of dogfights to settle the order behind him.
On Lap 6, Nick McBride passed rookie Garnet Patterson at Turn 11 for sixth, only for Patterson to pass him back the following lap. Patterson held off McBride’s attack on Walker Straight at the start of Lap 7, before he finally made it stick against Patterson with a move at Turn 5.
That same lap, Walls made a move on Hedge at Turn 9 for second position, yet Vidau was now 7.4s ahead at the front of the field.
That left Hegde to fend off a faster Maxwell, who was within half-a-second of the pole sitter. As Maxwell attacked, Hedge ran wide at Turn 2 on Lap 9, but managed to stay ahead as Maxwell ducked and weaved in an attempt to get by.
Hedge blocked on Walker Straight on Lap 10, forcing Maxwell into a move around the outside at Turn 3, but again could not make it by.
While the pair battled, Walls had cut Vidau’s lead to as little as 2.7s as lapped traffic became an issue for the frontrunners.
Meanwhile, Lap 12 saw Maxwell drop away after a poor entry into the final turn, Hedge managing to keep him behind, bit after regrouping Maxwell finally made it by at Turn 3 – only to have Hedge take it back through turns 4 and 5.
With two laps left, the final step on the podium was settled when Maxwell ended up in the gravel at Turn 3 after locking the rears and going off on his own.
Up front, Vidau was untouchable despite much of his lead dissolving, winning by 2.5s from Walls and Hedge.
Adrian Flack in 13th was the lead Pro-Am driver.
Race 3 of the Porsche Carrera Cup is scheduled for 18:25 AEDT tomorrow, Saturday April 1.
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