Race 1
SSR Performance Porsche drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Michael Ammermüller not only drove to their third win of the season in the Saturday race at the Sachsenring, but also ensured the first Porsche victory at the track in the ADAC GT Masters.
Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT crew Luca Stolz and Maro Engel worked their way closer to the top of the table with a third, second place in a row, while Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi drivers and championship leader Ricardo Feller and Christopher Mies continued their strong form with third place in the battle for the title. “It’s great that we achieved our first victory for Porsche here,” said Mathieu Jaminet. “It was a perfect day: thanks to pole position and victory, we scored 28 points. They are very important in the title fight, because this year it is again very close to several vehicles.”
After Porsche works driver Jaminet had already shown his speed in qualifying with his second Pirelli Pole Position Award of the season, he was also the class of the field in the first half of the race: the Frenchman stayed ahead at the start and then had a lead of around two and a half seconds over Luca Stolz out in the Mercedes-AMG.
The Mercedes-AMG works driver came in for the compulsory pit stop one lap earlier in the middle of the race, but that didn’t pay off. Jaminet’s partner Ammermüller stayed in front and in the end won, 2.102 seconds ahead of Maro Engel, who had taken over from Stolz. For ex-champion Jaminet and defending champion Ammermüller it was the third win of the season after Oschersleben and Red Bull Ring. They moved up to second place overall.
Third place went to championship leaders Ricardo Feller and Christopher Mies in the best Audi, just under five seconds behind. Feller also won the Pirelli Junior classification.
In the overall standings they now lead with six points to Jaminet / Ammermüller and Raffaele Marciello and Maximilian Buhk, who with their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo put pressure on the third-placed Audi from Feller / Mies in the final phase, but had to be content with fourth place.
Thomas Preining and defending champion Christian Engelhart made up five positions in their Küs Team Bernhard Porsche in the race and achieved their best result of the season so far in fifth.
Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor came in sixth with their Team WRT Audi, followed by Klaus Bachler and Simona De Silvestro in their Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche.
Local hero Maximilian Paul and Marco Mapelli finished eighth and scored important points for the Dresden team T3 Motorsport in the best Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.
Igor Waliłko and Jules Gounon came in ninth in the Team Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing AMG GT3 whilst Nick Yelloly and Jesse Krohn completed the top 10 in the only BMW M6 GT3 in the field for Schubert Motorsport.
Victory in the Pirelli Trophy classification for non-professional drivers went to Car Collection Audi driver Florian Spengler, who shares the car with Markus Winkelhock.
Mathieu Jaminet: “To be at the front here is a big advantage because you lose a lot in the fast corners when you are following someone. I tried to drive out the largest possible gap and then hand it over to Michael. Our goal today was to win because we couldn’t afford another bad weekend like at the Lausitzring in the title fight. Hence the motto was ‘All in’. We are getting closer and closer to the top of the table. It will be interesting in the title fight.”
Michael Ammermüller: “We are still in the race for the championship. Today was an important day for us. Mathieu did a great job in qualifying and in the first stint. We both got the most out of the car. In the end it got tight again – as always in the ADAC GT Masters. Our goal is to become champions again, with our performance today it looks pretty good. Hopefully it will continue like this. That was a perfect race for us today. ”
Race 2
Four races before the end of the season, championship leaders Ricardo Feller and Christopher Mies saw their advantage shrink to just two points after finishing fifth.
Luca Stolz and Maro Engel took second place at the very last corner of the race, their fourth second place on the trot vaulting the pair to second in the points chase too. Igor Waliłko and Jules Gounon in the Team Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing AMG GT3 Evo meanwhile drove from pole position to a safe victory.
Third place went to the Küs Team Bernhard Porsche duo Thomas Preining and Christian Engelhart.
“A really great day”, said winner Gounon. “I just love this track. It was here that I clinched my first GT3 victory in 2016, and that was the starting signal for my career. To win here again now is fantastic. It was a perfect match. Pole, fastest lap and victory – it couldn’t have gone any better. We are now the underdogs in the title fight! ”
The tenth race of the ADAC GT Masters season got off to a turbulent start: while pole setter Jules Gounon defended his top position in front of GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini driver Franck Perera, Maximilian Buhk, who started third in the table, was behind him in the Mann-Filter Team Landgraf – HTP / WWR Mercedes but was turned around by another GRT Huracan in the hands of Lamborghini works driver Albert Costa Balboa.
Missed todays thrilling #GTMasters race at #Sachsenring?
Catch up with our quick highlights here and see how @JulesGounon and Igor Walilko took their second win of the season. pic.twitter.com/JSQDvLAoci
— ADAC GT Masters (@gtmasters) October 3, 2021
Buhk was then hit by another vehicle and eliminated, Costa Balboa had to complete a drive-through penalty.
Saturday winner Michael Ammermüller was also involved in a separate collision with his Porsche on the opening lap and fell out of the top 20.
The Safety Car was deployed and after the race went back to green, Gounon took the lead in the Zakspeed AMG and handed over with just under five seconds advantage to partner Igor Waliłko.
The Pole then extended his lead further and saw the checkered flag as the winner with a time cushion of almost 16 seconds. A second win of the season for the pairing after the second race at Lausitzring.
For Waliłko, this also meant the second class win in the Pirelli Junior classification.
The gripping battle for second place was exciting until the end. Rolf Ineichen, who had taken over from Franck Perera, defended his position until the final lap, until Luca Stolz squeezed past in the last corner. Thomas Preining and defending champion Christian Engelhart also slipped past Ineichen / Perera in their best Porsche and took their first podium of the season, the Lamborghini drivers only got fourth place. Small consolation for Ineichen: The Swiss won the Pirelli Trophy classification.
In the second half of the race, championship leaders Ricardo Feller and Christopher Mies fought a close battle for fifth place with Phoenix Audi crew Jusuf Owega and Patric Niederhauser. With three laps to go, Feller finally prevailed and secured fifth place.
Car Collection Audi duo Florian Spengler and Markus Winkelhock came in seventh with their Audi, ahead of Rutronik Racing by Tece Audi pairing Elia Erharth. Ninth place went to the Corvette C7 GT3-R of Jeffrey Schmidt and Marvin Kirchhöfer.
Michael Ammermüller and partner Mathieu Jaminet fought their way up to tenth place after the incident on the opening lap and are now eleven points behind the leaders Feller and Mies, third in the table.
Jules Gounon: “The pole this morning was fantastic. I wanted to give Igor a five-second lead in my stint, and I managed to do that. He then confidently won the race.
“We are now in the fight for the title, 25 points behind. But we have no pressure and see what comes out. Thanks to Mercedes-AMG and Zakspeed for the great car.”
Igor Waliłko: “It feels great to win again on Sunday! I actually didn’t go into this season expecting to get such great results. I tried to manage the tyres well, not make mistakes, and get the car home safely. I’m still learning a lot; this is my first full season in a GT3 car. Fortunately, I was able to relax a little more at the front today and didn’t have to get the most out of the car. ”
