Isaac Tutumlu takes home podium finish in Barcelona

Spaniard driver of Kurdish heritage came back to the series in style as he finished 3rd with his Martinet by Almeras Porsche 991 Cup shared with Jordi Batllé. Just after the race Tutumlu took a flight to Germany because he has to join Car Collection Motorsport for collective testing of ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben.

The first visit of the season to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya brought a podium finish for Isaac Tutumlu in the Spanish GT series. The Barcelona-born driver of Kurdish ancestry took the Spanish GT title in 2013 and it was a great way to start off the new season claiming third on the rostrum with the Martinet by Almeras-entered Porsche 991 Cup and teaming up with Jordi Batllé.

Both Catalan drivers finished all free practice sessions within the top 3. At the same time, Tutumlu underlined “Jordi´s performance is impressive, considering his last race was seven years ago”. In qualifying, which took place on Sunday morning, Tutumlu set a sensational 1:48.451 lap in Q1. It was a mere 51 thousandths of a second slower than Mathieu Jaminet´s time, who is a Porsche factory driver. Later, in Q2, Batllé qualified second as well with a time of 1:50.900.

Tutumlu jumped into the car for the start and ran in the slipstream of Daniel Díez-Varela. The driver of Almeras explained: “I avoided risks. When I tried to overtaking him, I was locking the front wheels. So, my strategy was to run in second place and pull away from our rivals behind”. When Tututmlu handed over the car to Batllé, the latter continued in podium contention despite spin. During refueling, the pair lost 30 seconds as another car blocked them but Tutumlu rejoined the track third and immediately was lapping quicker than both drivers ahead. But he spun to avoid contact with another car. “Well, I lost some seconds but otherwise I would have crashed. As a result, Jaminet was right behind in the final stages of the race. But I was matching his pace and kept him at bay. Our third place here is a brilliant result for us. He was brilliant. Our goal is to contest this series. Let´s see what we can achieve”, Tutumlu explained.

Just minutes later after podium ceremony, Tutumlu travelled to Germany because Oschersleben hosts official test days of ADAC GT Masters tomorrow and the day after. Spaniard said “now I have to adapt to the style of driving new Audi R8 LMS demands, which is completely different to Porsche 991 Cup. This test with Car Collection Motorsport, a factory backed team, is extremely important because the season starts there in two weeks. My teammate Kevin Van der Linde will be a valuable help to discover Oschersleben, taking into account I´ve never raced there before.”