ADAC GT Masters·1.9.2013

Lips with supreme Gentlemen class victory: Corvette driver Remo Lips achieves second win of the season at the Lausitzring

Victory overall in the first ADAC GT Masters race at the Lausitzring and in the Gentlemen category belonged solely to the Corvette. Remo Lips (Callaway Competition) drove his Corvette GT3 Z06.R to his second win of the season, aided by ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Lennart Marioneck. Championship leader René Bourdeaux (Tonino powered by Herberth Motorsport) was second in the Porsche 911 GT3 R and thus increased his lead on fellow Porsche driver Christina Nielsen (Farnbacher Racing) who finished third.

Right at the start, Lips tucked in behind team-mate Toni Seiler to take second place in the Gentlemen class. When Seiler spun off track on the fourth lap and ended up in the gravel bed, Lips took over the lead in the class and remained on top. After the driver changeover, Marioneck made sure of the second win of the season for his Swiss team-mate by coming home in 13th place overall. Lips did not have to take too many risks on his way to the class victory; Christina Nielsen had to pit on the first lap with a puncture after making contact with another car during the start, and René Bourdeaux got a penalty on his pit stop.

Lips, talking about his race: "I tucked in directly behind Toni Seiler on the opening lap. I was subsequently able to take the lead in the Gentlemen class when Toni ran into a few problems. I kept out all the scraps, using the Corvette´s excellent speed. I wasn´t too unhappy about the safety car period as I´d been putting a lot of stress on my tyres up until then. Lennart made sure of the class win at the finish line. With today´s result, I´m slowly working my way further up the standings and continually gaining ground on the front-runners."

Championship leader René Bourdeaux was not too dissatisfied with second place: "The race was excellent as regards the result, but was average in itself. When I saw at the start of the race that Christina Nielsen was a lap down, I perhaps eased off too much and got a penalty after the pit stop. P2 in the Gentlemen category is good, but what was really important was to stay ahead of Christina."