Sunday race with a bit more spark

While the opening round of the ADAC GT Masters was run in sunshine, the Sunday race was run under a thick cloud cover at the Oschersleben track.

Lamborghini had taken Pole Position with the GRT Grasser Racing Team #82 ahead ORANGE1 by GRT Grasser #63 and Phoenix Racing Audi #6.

That was a bit of a revenge for GRT Grasser Racing Team, who had got all three cars disqualified in the Saturday race, losing a podium position.

Just like in the Saturday race, there was a further formation lap. That almost caught out some of the drivers in the midfield, who were very aggressive on the throttle coming out of the final turn. Luckily it didn’t end up in a very expensive crash, and everybody avoided each other.

When the lights went green, Frank Stippler in the Team ISR Audi #33 spun after contact. He ended up in an Audi sandwich between Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Mies, which punctured his rear tire instantly.

Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi #28 was in the gravel by lap 2, all by its own. That send out the Safety Car, to get him pulled into a place of safety. He simply just lost the rear end in the ultra fast turn 5, and was lucky to keep the car on all 4 wheels.

Fortunately the clean-up went very fast, so the racing could resume.

Luca Ludwig in the HB Racing Ferrari #7 made it past Jake Dennis in the Phoenix Racing Audi #6. #6 fell as a stone through the field, when he came into contact with the Car Collection Motorsport Mercedes #8 only two corners later. A puncture sent him all the way to last position.

Just like the race yesterday, you had to wait all the way until the pitstops, to get a bit of action through the field.

There weren’t any changes in the top 3, but Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche #99 was the big winner, jumping from P9 to P4 during the pitstops.

The Callaway Corvette #1 was the big loser, when Marvin Kirchhöfer couldn’t start the car after the pitstop. It took way too much time, before it initially fired, but they were already far away from the points.

The GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini #19 and BWT Mücke Motorsport Audi #26 both were awarded a Drive-through penalty for too fast pitstop times, but they weren’t near the points anyway.

There was a contact between YACO Racing Audi #50 and EFP by TECE Audi #11, where the latter had a trip through the gravel. That gave Philip Geipel in #50 a 10-grid penalty for his next race. So he might keep his front bumper to himself the next time he is side by side with a competitor, going into a corner.

Nicolai Sylvest had driven the Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing #20 all the way from P16 to P11 before handing over to Kim-Luis Schramm, who made it up to 10th. But then he was hit by Indy Dontje in the MANN-FILTER Team HTP Motorsport Mercedes #48, sending #20 deep into the gravel. Dontje was awarded a drive-through penalty for that.

But the incident sent out a Safety Car with just five minutes to go, leaving only one final lap of racing to be done.

But it was a bit of a boring end to a race, that hadn’t given too much action anyway.

Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli in the ORANGE1 by GRT Grasser Lamborghini #63 won the race ahead of GRT Grasser Racing Team Lambo #82 and HB Racing Ferrari #7.

Philip Ellis, Max Hofer, Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli all leads the Championship with 25 points, while Mathieu Jaminet and Robert Renauer are second with 22 points.

The ADAC GT Masters will be back on the track in 14 days’ time, when the third and fourth races will be run in Most in the Czech Republic.