ADAC GT Masters·30.8.2015

ADAC GT Masters: Comments after the race: Observations from the paddock after the second race at the Sachsenring

Kelvin van der Linde (#1 C.Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra), Winner: "Words fail me. The Sachsenring is my favourite track. Things could not have gone better today. This win was above all a great team effort. We´ve not had too much luck so far this year, but we´ve now finally made the breakthrough here. At last, victory in the bag! I hope things go just as well at Zandvoort in three weeks´ time."

Stefan Wackerbauer (#1 C.Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra), Winner: "It´s incredible, we´ve finally done it. The key to victory was the late pit stop after Kelvin´s brilliant work. That enabled us to overtake the competition and take the lead. Finally, the hard work done by the team in recent months has paid off."

Fabian Hamprecht (#8 Bentley Team HTP, Bentley Continental GT3), second: "I could have gone faster than the Porsche in the first stint of the race but couldn´t find a way past. I didn´t want to try to muscle my way through. I gave it my all. Clemens then produced another thrilling performance in the second stint."

Clemens Schmid (#8 Bentley Team HTP, Bentley Continental GT3), second: "I had feared that the Audi would be in front of me after the pit stop, as I made a small mistake on my out-lap after the driver changeover. Stefan then defended superbly well. I tried knocking, but he didn´t want to move over. The race was OK, as we finished second. Fabian drove sensationally well, and I´m pleased to finally be on the podium again."

Klaus Bachler (#36 GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), third: "We fought hard to the very end. We were strong to begin with and had everything under control. But then we suffered a huge drop in performance, similar to the Lausitzring. Many thanks to Martin Ragginger, who produced a cracking race and rescued third place at the finish. Who knows how useful that´s going to be? We´re now 23 points behind the championship leaders and within striking distance. We´ll do all we can. The season isn´t over yet, not until Hockenheim."

Martin Ragginger (#36 GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), third: "We had to struggle a great deal in the end to maintain position. Many thanks to the team, who worked hard to put us back up front after a tough day yesterday. Klaus made a good start, and then I had to fight very hard. I had a fair scrap with the Bentley."

Luca Stolz (#7 Bentley Team HTP, Bentley Continental GT3), fourth: "It´s a bit sad in the end when you have to give back the place when you are considerably faster than the Porsche and have scrapped for many laps. It was a shame. A podium or even a victory was possible for the team here, but fourth place is still satisfactory."

Florian Scholze (#22 MRS GT-Racing, Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3), Winner in Gentlemen class: "I´ve never driven a car that´s been so hot inside. We had no speed and don´t know why. We´ve totally rebuilt the car and still haven´t found a solution. We´ve not been managing so well with the car since the Nürburgring weekend."

Dominic Jöst (#22 MRS GT-Racing, Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3), Winner in Gentlemen class: "What a tough weekend! The Sachsenring is obviously not up the Nissan´s street. We struggled really hard. Today´s result was just damage limitation. This is not what we want."

Marc Gassner (#23 MRS GT-Racing, Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3), second in Gentlemen class: "I had extreme understeer. It´s never been so bad before. Our set-up must have been fundamentally wrong, there´s no other explanation. I couldn´t attack, which was not so great."

Florian Strauss (#23 MRS GT-Racing, Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3), P13: "It was a tough race, because it was extremely hot. We made some more fundamental changes to setup during the night, but they didn´t help much. We just want to draw a line under the weekend asap."