Ahead of Maria’s return to the Stuttgart Porsche Tennis Grand Prix this weekend, she returned to the track with her Porsche Brand Ambassador counterpart, Mr. Mark ‘FIA World Champion’ Webber. This time, the goal was for Mark to teach Ms. Sharapova the ins and outs of racing around the on-site test track in a brand new GT2 RS, the fastest and most powerful 911 ever built. This is a great opportunity for Mark to help Maria understand the Porsche brand, as well as make her scream on camera from the passenger’s seat, which is always fun to watch.
Mark Webber, being an incredible driving talent in his own right, is not so great at handling the passenger seat with Maria at the wheel. She isn’t particularly adept at running the racing line, or keeping the speeds up through the corners, but Webber does his best to instruct her. At one point, Sharapova even drives off the course into a secondary offshoot from the track surface, and Webber scolds her for not listening to his instruction.
Webber then has an opportunity to exact his revenge, unleashing the full 700-horsepower by stepping behind the wheel. With Maria in the right-hand seat, he can go flat chat from the first second, running absolutely as fast as the car’s legs would take them. He drifted, she screamed, it was a great time.
“It’s always fascinating to experience what a professional racing driver can do with a super sports car,” said Maria Sharapova afterwards, “and keeping my well-being in mind, I’m sure he wasn’t driving flat out, far from it. He’s simply a real gentleman.”
