MIM-contracted driver Lirim Zendeli finished outside the top 10 in the penultimate round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup series at the Zandvoort seaside circuit in the Netherlands, as the all-conquering Larry ten Voorde (Schumacher CLRT) dominated proceedings ahead of a raft of competitive Dutch drivers.

In front of a massive Dutch crowd and the Formula 1 fraternity, the young German driver, who had qualified in sixteenth place on the grid, was able to benefit from the misfortunes of others to move up the field in the 17-lap race, which was twice interrupted by the Safety-Car.

On lap 8 he moved into P15 after his Ombra Racing teammate Keagan Masters went off the track and then moved up another place after fellow rookie challenger Theo Oeverhaus (BWT Lechner) locked up his wheels at the end of the pit straight.

A further outing for the Safety-Car on laps 11 and 12 bunched the field back up again and Lirim was able to pass Ariel Levi (Uniserver) for thirteenth. Then Marvin Klein (Schumacher CLRT) also had a lock-up on lap 15, leaving Lirim in twelfth, but this became P13 on the penultimate lap as Levi got past him again.

“It was a pretty good race,” declared Lirim. “I had great pace, but I didn’t make any places in the opening lap, so it was difficult to move forward a lot. I gained some positions on track and all in all I was happy with the pace in the race. I tried to go for P11 in the last lap but lost even out to P13 losing momentum on my attempt, but I wanted to take the risk.”

The final round of the Porsche Supercup takes place in one week’s time at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, as support race for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.