Rahel Frey and Philip Geipel drove from 17th on the grid to win the second GT Masters race of the Zandvoort weekend in the #50 YACO Racing Audi R8 LMS, making a bold call on tyres in a sudden downpour during the race. Finishing second overall was the HB Racing Lamborghini of Jaap van Lagen and Norbert Siedler, with the Zakspeed AMG GT3 third.
From the start of the race the #17 Team75 Bernhard Porsche of Kevin Estre seemed in control, leading from pole ahead of the #5 HB Racing Lamborghini of Jaap van Lagen and Land Audi of Christopher Haase on the dry Zandvoort circuit following the rain earlier in the day. But the running order would get turned on its head when the safety car was called for Nikolaj Rogivue hitting the barriers hard at Gerlachbocht after a spin.
With the race under caution the rain came, and came down hard with just over 40 minutes remaining, prompting multiple teams to dive into the pits to change to wet tyres. The most notable crews that gambled were Team Zakspeed and YACO Racing, who immediately slalomed through the field when the race restarted.
Luca Ludwig, who was in the #1 Zakspeed Mercedes during the sequence, managed to snatch the lead off Estre. The Frenchman would then make a crucial error at Scheivlak, losing control of his 911 and slipping off the circuit and into the gravel. He managed to continue, but he had fallen to sixth, allowing Frey and van Lagen to inherit the remaining podium spots behind Ludwig. Frey then immediately attacked Ludwig but couldn’t get past before the round of stops.
As the pit window opened, the #32 Bonaldi Lamborghini of Florian Spengler made a similar error to the Bernhard Porsche, but instead got beached in the gravel at Scheivlak after its off, causing the organisers to yellow flag the area and send the safety car out again after the pit window closed.
When Estre came in for his stop, the day would then go from bad to worse for Saturday’s winning Porsche crew, as when Estre climbed out of the car, the engine blew, the gravel seemingly damaging the radiator, causing it to overheat.
“I was concentrating a bit too much on the car behind and went off,” commented a disappointed Estre after the race.”
The lead also changed during the stops, with Phillip Geipel’s YACO Audi emerging in the lead of the race with the HB Racing Lambo of Norbert Siedler second and Sebastian Asch’s Zakspeed Mercedes third after Frey and Ludwig dived in early to change back to slick tyres.
From there, Geipel managed to create a healthy gap of a couple of seconds out front as the race began to wind down, though he did make a small – but heart-stopping – error at Kumhobocht a few minutes before the end, running wide and almost off the tarmac. He managed to hang on for the team’s first win of 2016 however, and the second of his GT Masters career.
Behind the HB Lambo and Zakspeed Mercedes in second and third, the first of the two Land Motorsport Audis – the #29 of Connor De Phillippi and Chris Mies – finished fourth, taking the lead of the championship from the #77 Callaway Corvette in the process.
The #77’s place in the points didn’t take much of a hit though, as Jules Gounon and Daniel Keilwitz finished up just behind their rival Audi in fifth. The gap between the two cars is now just two points heading into the final round at Hockenheim.
The season finale is set to take place at Hockenheim from September 20th to October 2nd.
