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Michael Fassbender Takes on the Redbull Ring in his LMGTE Porsche 911

In his quest to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, actor Michael Fassbender has been racing with Porsche in the European Le Mans Series. This week we get a behind-the-scenes look at his experience at the Four Hours of Redbull Ring.
Proton Porsche Racing Team 6 photos
Photo: Via Porsche
Proton Porsche Racing TeamProton Porsche Racing TeamProton Porsche Racing TeamProton Porsche Racing TeamMichael Fassbender
In the last episode of the series, the first of this third season, we saw the team struggle. Setting up the car proved to be a major hurdle. So this week, things start off by addressing the problem.

The team adds racing engineer Andrea Mercatelli. He's a longtime pro and knows how to set the car up for the best performance. Fassbender compliments him for his attention to detail. "He changed the weekend for us completely...he dealt with each step very singularly".

This focus gave the team a specific direction to head in, and that's what they did. First, they choose a tire compound to run on. Then they start working on the setup of the suspension. After practice, it becomes clear that even with an optimal setup, they're not the fastest.

The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo runs away from the Porsche Proton team, gaining almost a full second in just the first half of the course. Of course, the two large early straightaways at Redbull Ring aid the Italian cars. It's with that in mind that the team starts to pray for rain. They hope that a slicker track will balance out the competition.

Despite those prayers, the track is bone dry at its start. Despite that, Fassbender does an excellent job of keeping the Ferrari's on a short leash. When the driver change happens, Michaels's partner, Richard Lietz, catches and passes a 488. The drivers must switch again, though, before the end of the race.

As that happens, the rain comes. The episode ends before the race does. We're still left with a small cliffhanger. As the rain pours harder and harder, multiple cars crash.

Records show that ultimately Fassbender's team ends up fourth in its class despite the difficulty. We can't wait to see how they pulled that off in the next episode.
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