Motorsport: Halliday battles to 12th place after difficult start

New Zealand driver Matt Halliday. Photo / Supplied

Matt Halliday fought his way through another difficult weekend in the latest round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at Germany's Nurburgring circuit.

Challenged by changeable weather conditions and a track he has never driven before, the Californian-based Kiwi driver fought his way up to 12th place after an early setback.

After adapting to the circuit in free practice and seeking the best race set-up during qualifying, he started the 14-lap race from 14th on the grid but was soon hit and pushed, relegating him to a distant 21st place.

However, with the wet but drying surface, his experience was evident as he battled his way back to 12th, setting the fastest lap times.

The performance was pleasing for the German MRS team, as Halliday was driving a 2010 version Porsche 911 GT3 using a wet weather set-up with dry tyres. It worked well but faded in the closing stages.

"That was a really tough weekend," he said. "I had never seen the track before and it showed as we could not make anything work properly.

"The damp and slippery conditions gave us a chance, so had we not been pushed off at the start we would have been in great shape.

"At least fighting our way back up to 12th got the team some valuable points."

Halliday heads to Australia in a few weeks to begin V8 Supercar testing, where he will be driving a Ford Falcon for Jim Beam Racing with regular team driver James Moffatt.

He is aiming to contest a couple more Porsche Supercup races before the end of the season.