One of the strongest driver pairings of the grid and a fast car, but a big portion of bad luck and unforeseeable external circumstances: Defending champion Dino Lunardi (F) and Maxime Martin (B) had a good pace in their BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 at the ADAC GT Masters round at the Lausitzring, but finished 23 and 19th after a penalty in the first race and a puncture in the second heat.
"We expected a tough weekend, and this also happened," said Dino Lunardi. The reining champion from France started from 16th into the first race and had to race with maximum attack, to make up ground. While working his way up to the front, Lunardi made contact with the Corvette of Wirth/Frentzen, which caused the Corvette to spin. Lunardi handed over the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 to Maxime Martin during the mandatory driver change in 12th position. A good pit stop and a strong driving brought Maxime Martin up to seventh position in the latter part of the race, but eventually the Belgian had to let a Corvette and a BMW Z4 pass and finished ninth. After the race, Lunardi/Martin were penalised with a 30 second penalty for the contact of Lunardi with the Corvette in the opening lap and thus the ALPINA was only scored in 23rd position.
In Sunday's second race, Maxime Martin started from a very encouraging fourth place. "This position is a testament to the driver, as this result is much stronger as the car would be capable of on this track under the current circumstances", praised ALPINA's Andreas Bovensiepen. After the start, Martin was in the first two laps in third place, but dropped back to fifth position. In the eighth round, all hopes for a good result were gone, when Martin had to pit with a puncture. Due to the extra stop, the ALPINA dropped to the penultimate position. The ALPINA-driver started to catch up and still made up eleven positions, before they finished 19th.
"In the tight corners at the Lausitzring the car was good, but in terms of top speed and traction, it was no match to the Porsches," said Maxime Martin. "The B6 GT3 is the heaviest car on the grid (currently ballasted by the organizers with 110kg) and has a very high down force due to our big rear wing. In combination of this, the Yokohama rear tire is overloaded. We experienced three punctures this season and got for safety-reason at the Nürburgring round the so called "Porsche tire", which has the same dimensions, but a stronger construction. But this tire was taken away from us after one race."
"We improved the car during the weekend and also made another good step for the second race", said Dino Lunardi. "But I'm quite worried about the third puncture of the season, something has to happen here. Unfortunately, our gap to the championship leaders grew a lot his weekend. Our championship hopes are very small, if the Porsche continue their really strong performance. But we will certainly attack at the next round and hope for a good race at Nürburgring."
"After the puncture at the Sachsenring, the so called "Porsche tire" has been granted by the organizer ADAC and the sanctioning body DMSB to us after a recommendation from Yokohama", ALPINA's Andreas Bovensiepen explained. "When competitors also requested this tire, it got simply taken away from us. A tire, which is overloaded, is a serious safety concern and after three puncture this season, all involved parties should be interested to avoid further punctures and damages. Therefore, we claim the use the "Porsche tire" again with immediate effect."
"The BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 got a performance break this season with reduced power due to smaller air restrictors and more weight, while other cars got more power and less weight. This is not only a difficult situation for us, but also makes life for our customer team LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler very difficult. Johannes Leidinger and Florian Spengler finished in the mid field in 25th and 26th position of 40 cars, even if they had to serve a stop-and-go-penalty in the second race."
The next round of the ADAC GT Masters takes place from September 14th to 16th at the Grand-Prix-Track of the Nürburgring. The ADAC GT Masters will visit the Nürburgring for the second time this year. At the series first appearance there in July on the short sprint-track, ALPINA claimed a second place finish and a victory. On the long Grand-Prix-Track, ALPINA could already win three races with the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3.
Source: Team