Carrie Schreiner showed good pace in the Goodyear 60 endurance race alongside teammate Stefan Mücke, as the duo finished fourth in an interrupted race. Two more GTC races will follow tomorrow.
Lausitzring, 09:45 in the morning: grey and sunny at the same time. Silence over the region until the engines roars. And the first GTC qualifying has just started the day.
"I like the Lausitzring very much. Last year at GT Masters I was actually doing really well here, especially in the free practice, now it has worked well here too so far", Carrie summed up her experience at the track in Brandenburg.
Carrie Schreiner, competing in the #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 by Phoenix Racing, got in the driving seat for the first GTC qualifying session. Unfortunately, it wasn't a clean session, interrupted by a yellow and a red flag because of a stranded car. Additionally, Schreiner had trouble with traffic on her fast laps and finished the session in P4. Her teammate Stefan Mücke, with whom she shares the car, was third in qualifying 2 for both the Sunday's races.
"Now I was 4th. Unfortunately a bit of bad luck with the red flag and traffic. But I'm sure I can improve to P3 later" – she added.
Later, it was time for the Goodyear 60 race, which is the endurance format that goes alongside the two sprint races on the GTC-Race weekend. Each driver enters one of the one hour-long sprint races, while in the endurance race the co-drivers, when present, alternate behind the wheel after a mandatory pit stop.
After yesterday's qualifying, Tim Heinemann started from pole, ahead of Salman Owega and Carrie Schreiner – the latter taking the start of the race. Steiner in the McLaren had a great start, and immediately passed Schreiner and Owega before the first turn. Schreiner had some work to do to keep Bewanger in 5th behind her during the first laps, before he managed to pass her and she dropped back. But then Steiner suddenly slowed down lost ground. He would eventually stop on the start-finish straight, which triggered a Safety Car and bunched up the field back together.
The red flag was waved and the race interrupted with all teams coming to the pits. However, time continued to roll and the race was green again with around 39 minutes to go. The rain still continued to pour on the wet track.
The battle for the lead between Heinemann and Owega turned into wheel-to-wheel racing and several overtakings. Schreiner meanwhile tried everything to find a way around Bewanger ahead of her, but found no gap until she came into the pits to hand over her car to Stefan Mücke, who rejoined in third place.
The next Safety Car was deployed when Kevin Rohrscheidt lost the rear end of his car, spun and collided with the barriers – damaging his car dramatically. He was unhurt.
Due to the significant amount of debris on track, the race was red flagged some laps later and due to the rebuild of the barrier, the race was not restarted with over 12 minutes left on the clock.
However, shortly before the Safety Car had been called on track, Bewanger managed to pass Mücke for the last podium spot and dropped the #99 Audi to the final fourth place in the Goodyear 60.
Carrie Schreiner and Stefan Mücke will be back for their own races tomorrow at 10:15 and 15:35 local time for the remaining GTC sprint races.
