More points for Carrie Schreiner/Dennis Marshall, but a pretty difficult weekend for Simona de Silvestro/Klaus Bachler, who couldn't even start the second race because of engine problems, while Rahel Frey/Hendrik von Danwitz try to make further steps in the right direction.
It was a special weekend in Austria as ADAC GT Masters held on Sunday its 200th race: a great goal for the GT3 series that started on 8th June 2007 with its first round at the Nürburgring.
Since then, the series raced on 13 racetrack in 6 different countries - despite the most races were held at the Nürburgring with 16 starts. Among the 19 manufactures, Corvette, Porsche and Lamborghini started in all of the 14 seasons so far.
The biggest gap of a winner was 55,285 seconds and the smallest gap 0,126 seconds. 124 different cars and 43 teams won at least one race.
Up until this point, we have seen 12 female drivers on the ADAC GT Masters grid, with Claudia Hürtgen (7 victories) and Rahel Frey (2 victories) also stepping on the highest spot of the podium. Hopefully, many more will come.
The first qualifying session on Saturday morning at the Red Bull Ring wasn't an easy one for all the three teams in our focus: among them the best was Rahel Frey in P19, followed by Simona de Silvestro in 21st position and Carrie Schreiner down in 27th.
Race 1 was quickly decided as Henric Skoog passed pole-sitter Steijn Schothorst (GRT Grasser Racing Team) and lost more places as he dropped down to 4th position. Skoog pulled away and built an over 7-second gap as the pit window opened and he pitted for the driver change to teammate Yelloly who defended this comfortable leadership and won ahead of Robert Renauer/Sven Müller and Erik Johansson/Jens Klingmann.
Carrie Schreiner had a hard job from the back of the field: she made up a few places before she handed the car to Dennis Marschall, but he also couldn't do better and the pair found themselves in P22 as they crossed the finish line.
Simona de Silvestro and Klaus Bachler made it to 18th place at the end of the race: "P18 in race 1. Not the result we wanted, but a new chance tomorrow with Q2 and R2", Klaus Bachler commented on the first the day at the Red Bull Ring, his home race.
Rahel Frey and Hendrik van Danwitz had another challenging race pace-wise and finished in P25 on Saturday.
In the second qualifying session, Dennis Marschall set the 5th fastest lap in his and Carrie Schreiner's #8 Rutronik Racing Audi R8 LMS. Klaus Bachler started the 200th ADAC GT Masters race from P19, while Hendrik van Danwitz placed the Aust Audi in P27.
Just before the start of race 2, Klaus Bachler brought the #17 Küs Team75 Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 R back to the pits while on his way to the grid and retired due to technical issues. "Not an easy weekend for myself and my Team. We didn't start todays race because of a technical issue in the lap to the grid. Now its time that the luck will come back", said Bachler, while Simona added: "Disappointing day with our engine letting go today. But that’s motorsport sometimes, onwards and upwards!"
Again the pole-sitter had not the best of the starts and Jens Klingmann passed Tim Zimmermann (GRT Grasser Racing Team), who dropped back to 9th position on the grid.
After a contact, Jordan Pepper's Bentley (T3-HRT-Motorsport) was stuck in the gravel and required the intervention of the Safety Car.
At the restart, Klingmann defended his leading position until the driver change and Erik Johansson brought the car back in first place after the chequered flag, ahead of Yelloly/Skoog and Engelhart/Ammermüller. Yelloly and Skoog received a post-race 10 second penalty and dropped back to 5th.
The new podium thus sees Johannson/Klingmann in P1, Engelhart/Ammermüller in P2 and Luca Stolz/Maro Engel in P3. But that wasn't over yet - at the end of race 2, a protest was lodged against the SSR Performance Porsche of Engelhart/Ammermüller, which was then demoted to 4th place, resulting in Stolz/Engel advancing to second and Franck Perera/Albert Costa Balboa now claiming the podium finish in third spot.
SSR Performance expressed the will to appeal against the decision and thus the result remains provisional.
Dennis Marschall lost a few places at the beginning of the race and dropped back to 12th position; after the driver change, Carrie drove home to a good 14th place in Sunday's race in Austria. "Points in race 2 today. Not a perfect weekend but a lot of positives to take home. Step by step in the right direction", Carrie said after the challenging weekend.
"Slow and steady growth - but the luck is definitely not on our side!... that‘s the résumé about our GT Masters weekend at the Red Bull Ring" - Rahel Frey and her teammate Hendrik van Danwitz had again a difficult weekend with not much performance, but they try to take a step forward and into the right direction as they finished the second race in P21.
The next racing weekend was scheduled to take place in Zandvoort, but because of the Covid second wave in Europe and the consequent travel restrictions, the new venue will now be the Lausitzring, as it will host an event for the second time this season from 30rd October to 1st November.
“We have worked very well and constructively with the Circuit Zandvoort over the past few weeks and have checked all possibilities. Our big thanks go to the Zandvoort team there for the good support, we are looking forward to a comeback in Zandvoort in August 2021."
"Due to the current pandemic situation, we are switching to an alternative racetrack, because the health of everyone involved comes first. We would like to thank our long-term partner DEKRA, who made it possible at short notice that we can drive at the Lausitzring,” said ADAC Motorsport Director Thomas Voss.
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