August saw one of the busiest months in the history of the ADAC GT Masters, with three rounds in total taking place over the span of five weekends. First off was the Nürburgring round, four weeks back, followed up just seven days later at the Red Bull Ring and now this past weekend the sixth round taking place at the Lausitzring.
Nürburgring
The first race at the Nürburgring saw Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk continuing their winning ways, taking the first race at the Nürburgring just six days after their overall victory at the Total Spa 24 Hours.
Making a return to the podium were Christer Jöns and Markus Winkelhock in second place, ahead of the second Polarweiss Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Sergey Afanasiev and Andreas Simonsen. It was a truly Polarweiss-Racing sandwich on the podium, just the Prosperia Audi of Jöns/Winkelhock crashing the party.
Fourth went to Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz in their Callaway Corvette ahead of the Porsches of Mario Farnbacher/ Philipp Frommenwiler and Robert Renauer/ Michael Christensen. Christensen was subbing for Martin Ragginger, who was on duty in the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup. Positions seven and eight went to two BMW Z4 GT3s, with Jörg Müller/Max Sandritter finishing ahead of the DB Motorsport duo of Jeroen den Boer/ Simon Knap. The final two points-scoring places went to Nicolas Armindo/ Christian Engelhart in their Schütz-Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Prosperia C.Abt Racing Audi of Christopher Mies and René Rast. Toni Seiler, being joined by Jeroen Bleekemolen for this round, was able to take the spoils in the Gentlemen Trophy.
The victory and the half season championship lead went to Dominik Baumann and Claudia Hürtgen, who won the second GT Masters race at the Nürburgring aboard their PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3.
Bleekemolen put on a show in the opening laps of the race, leading it by a wide margin and in the end the fast Dutchman and his Swiss partner Toni Seiler finished in second ahead of the second PIXUM-Team Schubert BMW of Sandritter and Müller. For Seiler, it was another victory in the Gentlemen Trophy.
Just missing out on the podium were Christensen and Renauer in fourth place, ahead of Alessi and Keilwitz. A day after not finishing the race, the sole Ford GT of Lambda Performance took home the points for sixth place with Frank Kechele and Dominik Schwager behind the wheel. Making it three Callaway Corvettes in the top ten were Christian Hohenadel and Andreas Wirth in seventh, ahead of reigning champion Sebastian Asch and Florian Stoll in their MS Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra. The final two points-scoring spots went to Jöns/ Winkelhock in their Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audi and the Polarweiss Mercedes of Afanasiev and Simonsen.
Red Bull Ring
The fifth weekend of the ADAC GT Masters saw complete domination by the Callaway-Competition Corvette Z.06 GT3 of Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz, the Italian-German combination taking both victories.
In Race 1 it was the Lambda-Ford GT of Frank Kechele/ Dominik Schwager taking second, while Mario Farnbacher/ Philipp Frommenwiler found their way back onto the Podium in their Farnbacher-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Making a strong return from Asia was Martin Ragginger, back together with Robert Renauer, finishing fourth in their Tonino by Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R. Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz finished in P5 ahead of two Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audi R8 LMS ultras, with Christopher Mies/ René Rast and Christer Jöns/ Markus Winkelhock in sixth and seventh. The DB-Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 of Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap finished P8, with the Schütz-Motorsport Duo of Nicolas Armindo and Christian Engelhart bringing their Porsche home in ninth; while the final point went to the second Polarweiss Racing SLS of Sergey Afanasiev and Andreas Simonsen. The Gentlemen Trophy went to Remo Lips, who was sharing a Callaway-Corvette with Lennart Marioneck.
The second race was a cracker, with the top four crossing the line just under 1.5 seconds apart; and it once again saw Alessi/ Keilwitz coming out on top. But amassing 50 points over the two races still wasn’t enough for the victors to take the championship lead; that went to the second placed duo in race two: Götz and Buhk. Third went to Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap, a mere 0.8 and 0.6 seconds respectively behind first and second. Fourth went to Frank Kechele and Dominik Schwager.
Crossing the line in fifth with a sizable gap of 11 seconds behind was the Herberth-Motorsport Duo of Martin Ragginger and Robert Renauer. Christopher Mies and René Rast found themselves finishing in sixth, ahead of Mario Farnbacher/ Philipp Frommenwiler and Jörg Müller/ Max Sandritter. Christian Hohenadel/ Andreas Wirth finished ninth, and the final point went to Rahel Frey/ Christopher Haase. Winning the Gentlemen Trophy was René Bourdeaux in the second Herberth-Motorsport Porsche.
Lausitzring
Keeping their winning streak alive for another race were Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz, making it three in a row for their Callaway-Competition Corvette Z.06 GT3. And it was another cracking race with the top four finishing within two seconds. But the race was full of carnage, when after around 20 minutes Mario Farnbacher – trying to pass the leading René Rast Audi – hit the Ludwig-Curb at Turn 1 so badly in the Farnbacher Porsche that it not only took his 911 out of the race but also damaged the curb badly, prompting race control to halt the race while repairs were carried out.
But the René Rast/ Christopher Mies Audi was taken out of the running for the leading positions when it was handed a drive-through penalty for passing the safety car, when by accident Rast went down the start finish straight and didn’t follow the safety car rolling down pitlane. After the race they were also handed a 30 seconds penalty for a jump start.
Second went to Dominik Baumann and Claudia Hürtgen in their PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3, ahead of the Tonino by Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Martin Ragginger and Robert Renauer. Missing out on the podium once again were Frank Kechele and Dominik Schwager in fourth, ahead of Christer Jöns and Markus Winkelhock in one of the Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audi R8 LMS ultras.
DB-Motorsport Duo Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap brought their BMW Z4 GT3 home in sixth ahead of Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz. The next two spots went to two Audis, with Rahel Frey/ Christopher Haase finishing eight ahead of Sebastian Asch and Florian Stoll. Christian Hohenadel and Andreas Wirth were able to take home the final point of the race. Remo Lips was able to celebrate his second season win in the Gentlemen Trophy.
All good series have to come to an end and so it was that Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz finished the second race at the Lausitzring in fifth place, with the win going to Martin Ragginger/ Robert Renauer in their Tonino by Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R. Finding themselves again in second place were Baumann & Hürtgen in their PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3 ahead of Christer Jöns and Markus Winkelhock.
Buhk and Götz finished in fourth ahead of Keilwitz/ Alessi and Mies/ Rast. Christian Hohenadel and Andreas Wirth were able to hold off two of the Farnbacher Porsches for seventh, with Mario Farnbacher/ Philipp Frommenwiler finishing ahead of their teammates Christina Nielsen and Nick Tandy. This also meant that Christina Nielsen took home the Gentlemen Trophy honours, holding off class rival René Bourdeaux, who, alongside Alfred Renauer, finished just 0.3 seconds behind her in tenth.
With their three victories in a row, Alessi and Keilwitz shot themselves into the championship lead with 136 points after the Lausitzring. Second is Robert Renauer, just three points behind the Corvette duo and 13 ahead of Dominik Baumann and Claudia Hürtgen. Fourth sees Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk, who as well as Hürtgen/ Baumann have 120 points on their side. Martin Ragginger, due to missing the Nürburgring-round, has 113 points and René Rast/ Christopher Mies have 100 points. With 100 points still to be handed out all of these should have a chance to fight for the top spot, with Frank Kechele (91 points) and Simon Knap/ Jeroen den Boer (89 points) still a longshot.
The team championship sees a five-way battle between Prosperia C.Abt Racing (163 points), PIXUM Team Schubert (161 points), Callaway-Competition (159 points), Polarweiss Racing (151 points) and Tonino by Herberth Motorsport (144 points). The Gentlemen-Trophy has René Bourdeaux holding a five points advantage over Christina Nielsen, with Remo Lips 31 points back.
The next round of the ADAC GT Masters takes place in two weeks, when the championship makes its first visit to the Slovakiaring. The season finale takes place September 27th through 29th at the Hockenheim Ring.
Sören Herweg
All images ©adac.de/motorsport
