Intense wheel-to-wheel action and a thrilling three-way battle between Corvette, Bentley and Mercedes-Benz! More than 20,000 cheering fans hailed a new winner as the ADAC GT Masters weekend at Oschersleben reached its climax. In a keenly contested race, Bentley Team HTP duo Luca Stolz (19, GER) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (33, NL) crowned a debut weekend for their Bentley Continental in the ADAC GT Masters by recording the first victory for the British coupé. And in a repeat performance of Saturday, the Team Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMGs driven by Sebastian Asch (28, GER) and Luca Ludwig (26, GER) and the HP Racing gullwing of Hari Proczyk (39, A) and Andreas Simonsen (25, S) finished second and third respectively. "A great start to the season for us," said a delighted Bleekemolen. "At the start, I lost first position, but we had good tactics with a perfectly timed pit stop."
"The ADAC GT Masters and our new ADAC Formula 4 have served up some great racing in front of a wonderful backdrop of spectators," enthused ADAC Director Motorsport and Classic Lars Soutschka. "The ADAC GT Masters has thrilled us all with exciting races, and the inaugural weekend for the ADAC Formula 4 has exceeded our expectations."
Exciting battle for the lead during entire race
The second round of the ADAC GT Masters on Sunday was tense and full of drama from the start right through to the very last lap. When the lights turned to green, pole-setter Bleekemolen in the Bentley and Ludwig in the Mercedes-Benz fought for right of way into the first turn, while Daniel Keilwitz (25, GER), who had qualified third in the Callaway Competition Corvette, had the last laugh as he passed both the Bentley and the Mercedes-Benz to take the lead. However, his rivals refused to let him get away with it, and an exciting three-way battle developed which continued unabated in the second stint of the race after the driver changeover. Andreas Wirth (30, GER) defended a seemingly safe Corvette victory from Stolz in the Bentley until shortly before the end of the race. But Stolz inherited the lead and secured the first Bentley victory in the ADAC GT Masters when the Corvette had to stop due to a technical problem four laps before the end of the race. This victory was the first success in the ADAC GT Masters for Bentley and also for both Stolz and Bleekemolen.
"My start was good, but unfortunately, a bump with an opponent meant I had to relinquish the lead," said Bleekemolen. "The Corvette was a bit faster to begin with, but I was able to stay in contact. Luca drove a strong race and withstood a lot of pressure. It was lucky for us in the end that the Corvette had to drop out."
Luca Stolz: "I was slightly faster than the Corvette in front of me throughout the whole of the second stint, but I was never quick enough to overtake. I didn't want to risk too much, as I was in second place, but in the end, it was enough for the win. We learned a lot after our bad luck in the first race on Saturday and did everything right today."
Proczyk and Simonsen in a Mercedes-Benz also benefited from the Corvette duo's late retirement to take the second P3 podium of the weekend for Proczyk's new HP Racing outfit. The winners of Saturday's fixture, Christian Engelhart (28, GER) and Klaus Bachler (23, A) of GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport drove a fine race with excellent pit tactics, and after taking fourth place, come away from Oschersleben as the first leaders of the 2015 standings.
Claudia Hürtgen (43, GER) and Jesse Krohn (24, FIN) of BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert finished fifth ahead of ADAC GT Masters title defender Kelvin van der Linde (18, ZA) and C.Abt Racing co-driver Stefan Wackerbauer (19, GER) who secured their first points of the new campaign in sixth place after failing to finish on Saturday. Dominik Baumann (22, A) and Jens Klingmann (24, GER) of BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert crossed the line in seventh place ahead of the joint winners of the Gentlemen class, Dominic Jöst (36, GER) and Florian Scholze (41, GER) of MRS GT-Racing. Super sports cars from seven different manufacturers finished in the Top Ten when Remo Lips (33, CH) and Sven Barth (34, GER) placed tenth in their RWT Racing Corvette behind the kfzteile24 MS RACING Audi R8 of Daniel Dobitsch (30, A) and Edward Sandström (36, SE).
Second win for Nissan in Gentlemen class
A GT-R ran out winner again on Sunday after the Nissan victory in the Gentlemen class in the first race. Jöst and Scholze in the Nissan were unchallenged as they took the win ahead of Corvette driver Lips. ADAC GT Masters newcomer Andreas Weishaupt (42, GER) claimed the third spot on the podium in his C.Abt Racing Audi R8, aided by Christer Jöns (27, GER).
Pirelli happy with ADAC GT Masters season opener
The ADAC season opener at Oschersleben saw both the ADAC GT Masters and the ADAC Formula 4 equipped with tyres supplied by new exclusive partner Pirelli. Michael Blaufuss, Head of Motorsport Pirelli Deutschland, was favourably impressed: "We've seen some exciting racing and evenly matched competition here at the 2015 curtain-raiser. The high level of sporting and technical excellence underscores the quality of our tyres which have been impressive in terms of their performance and durability on this challenging circuit. Some of these ADAC Formula 4 drivers may one day graduate to Formula 1 which is also supplied and equipped by Pirelli. For the GT Masters contestants too, this was a successful first outing in a competition that offers us plenty of scope in terms of technology transfer to series production of Ultra High Performance tyres for sports cars and supercars."