Tyre Blowout for Simona De Silvestro in ADAC GT Masters Race 1 at Lausitzring

Luck wasn't on her side on Saturday at Lausitzring: Simona de Silvestro, driver of the #7 Precote Herberth Motorsport in ADAC GT Masters, was looking strong in fifth place before a tyre blowout ended her chances of big points at Lausitzring.

Photo by Vivien Strebelow

The ADAC GT Masters day began with the right foot for the Simona de Silvestro and Klaus Bachler duo, as the latter clinched the fifth place in the first qualifying session to start from the third row on the grid.

Feller/Mies (Montaplast by Land Motorsport) scored their first pole position ahead of Bortolotti/Costa Balboa (GRT GRASSER RACING TEAM) and Stolz/Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT).

Klaus Bachler was behind the wheel of the #7 Porsche 911 GT3 R at the race start for Saturday's race; up front, Feller defended his lead from the rest of the field and pulled away with a gap of 3,5 seconds until the driver switch to Mies half-way through the race.

Until the mandatory pit stop, Klaus Bachler was fifth and handed over to Simona de Silvestro - who had some problems after the pit stop and dropped back to seventh, but could hold her position until the race was interrupted by a red flag.

Jules Gounon's Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO by Team Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing was smoking and a caught fire, after losing lots of oil and inundating the track - to ultimately cause a red flag.

With 14 minutes left on the clock, the race was restarted and a tight battle unfolded between Mies and Engel; the latter attacked the leader, but he wasn't able to pass Mies for the victory.

But, before Mies could cross the finish line in first place, a second Safety Car phase was deployed when Simona de Silvestro's good race ended with a tyre blowout in the gravel. The Swiss driver got stuck in the run off and was subsequently forced to retire from the race eight laps before the chequered flag was out.

"It was looking pretty good until we had a puncture 15min before the end." - said de Silvestro's co-driver Bachler. "We had a good Quali and a good Race until Simona got a puncture because of debris", he summed up the incident, which wasn't caught by the TV cameras.

Mies/Feller took the first win of the weekend in ADAC GT Masters, ahead of Stolz/Engel and Bortolotti/Costa Balboa.

The Precote Herberth Motorsport's duo will be back tomorrow for Simona de Silvestro's qualifying session at 9:00 and the final race of the weekend at 12:00 local time.