Reigning champion Dino Lunardi (F) and Maxime Martin (B) showed a strong performance in their BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 during both races, but weren't rewarded with the expected amount of points. In the first race, Lunardi/Martin finished in a good fifth position, while in Sunday's second race, Lunardi retired from the lead.
That ALPINA would be strong on the demanding track in the North Sea dunes at Zandvoort, was obvious after qualifying, when Lunardi/Martin both qualified fourth for the two races. After a Corvette-driver in front of Lunardi was penalised, the Frenchman even started third, but lost a position at the start and another to the eventually race-winning Corvette. Lunardi handed the ALPINA to Martin in fifth position, the Belgian maintained this position until the end of the race. "After the driver change, Martin returned to the track behind some slower cars and lost much time", explained ALPINA's Andreas Bovensiepen. "Due to a later pit stop, Jeroen Bleekemolen in a Porsche re-entered the track just in front of Martin and on the very narrow Zandvoort-track, it was impossible to overtake the Porsche, even on the long straight. So we finished fifth."
Sunday's second heat started more promising for ALPINA, when Martin took second place in the starting lap and overtook a BMW Z4 in lap two for the lead. The BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 led the race until the final minutes, despite a close following BMW Z4. With only six laps to go, suddenly Lunardi slowed and stopped on track. A broken throttle body adjuster cost a possible podium finish. Today's racing cars don't have a throttle cable any more and use an electronic engine, which adjusts the throttle. If this engine breaks, the throttle doesn't open any more, when the driver steps on the gas-pedal.
"In motorsport, everything can happen, like we saw today", a deeply disappointed Dino Lunardi said after the race. "Our first race wasn't trouble free, but o.k.. Sunday we really had bad luck. But the championship is still long and gives us many opportunities to get the points back, that we lost today. For the next race, this means to work even harder, especially on the reliability of the car."
"Our Qualifying result was quite good, as one have to consider, that we also had a 20kg success ballast on board from the first round", Martin analysed the weekend. "In the first race, we had again some issues with tire performance and also problems with traffic, so fifth was a decent result. But in general we got less points then we hoped for. Luckily most of our pursuers in this championship didn't score good point either."
"Murphy's law of motor sports says, that when something breaks on the car, it's always when you running at the front and not at the back", ALPINA's Andreas Bovensiepen said. "Luckily we are still second in the championship with only a one point gap. I can't say if we would have won the race today, as at the end the second placed BMW Z4 was very strong. As expected, the competition was stronger then at the first round. Due to our retirement, the championship now gets even more thrilling. The BMW Z4 is in a very good shape and we can expect a lot from former Formula 1 racer Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Andreas Wirth, once they have a trouble free race with their Corvette. We would like to congratulate BMW for their first victory in ADAC GT Masters and for their first victory in the DTM since 20 years."
After two rounds, Lunardi/Martin are now second in the championship, only one point behind the championship leading Corvette of Alessi/Keilwitz. ALPINA is third in the team standing with a tow point gap.
A second BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 was entered in Zandvoort by the ALPINA customer team LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler for Florian Spengler and Johannes Leidinger. In the first race, the two Engstler-boys were pushed by an Aston Martin, which caused damage to the BMW ALPINA. In the second race, Spengler/Leidinger finished 20th out of 40 cars.
The third round of the ADAC GT Masters take place from June 8th to 10th at the Sachsenring near Chemnitz in the eastern part of Germany.
Source: Team