Ricky Collard (BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M6 GT3), winner in both the general and Junior classification: “The weekend went like a dream. My first race weekend in the ADAC GT Masters, and already a first victory! I would never have expected that. BMW and my team boss Charly Lamm took a big gamble when they signed me, because I had no GT experience going into this season and I have never raced outside the UK before. I’ve been given a great team-mate in Philipp, from whom I’ve already learnt a lot. We had been hoping for Top Ten finishes at Oschersleben, but as the weekend progressed, we kept adjusting our expectations upwards. That was not an easy race. I came under a lot of pressure from the Corvette towards the end, but I withstood it. Many thanks to BMW and BMW Team Schnitzer for the confidence they have placed in me.”
Philipp Eng (BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M6 GT3), race winner: “It could not have gone any better. I was not expecting us to put in such a strong performance this weekend and everything to go so smoothly. We wagered everything on a single throw of the dice today and took a lot of risks with the setup. Also, I started on fresh tyres. That paid off. When I was no longer in the car, I died a thousand deaths when the safety car came out onto the track. But Ricky did a great job. I am pleased for BMW now that they have secured a first victory for the M6 GT3 in the ADAC Masters. I hope it carries on like this.”
Jules Gounon (Callaway Competition, Corvette C7 GT3-R), runner-up in both the general and the Junior classifications: “We got the maximum possible from today’s race. I tried to catch up with the BMW, but it was too fast. I am very satisfied with the result, especially after the retirement on Saturday. This is a result we can build on.”
Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition, Corvette C7 GT3-R), runner-up in the general classification: “We can be satisfied with the race. I defended my third place on the first corner. However, there was no way we were going to make further progress up the field, because the other cars were too fast for us. But at least I opened up a gap on my pursuers. Our pit stop was perfect. On the approach to the pit lane, I gained time on the Porsche in front of me and came into our box right behind him. The team then executed a perfect pit stop, which was the key to us taking second place.”
Robert Renauer (Precote Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), P3: “Many thanks to Sven. He drove a great first stint. Our mechanics and our race engineer spent a long time after the first race working to improve the car. Today, everything ran superbly well. We were satisfied with third place and therefore took no risks in the closing stage after the final safety car. That was because overtaking is not easy here.”
Sven Müller (Precote Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), P3: “We are in any case satisfied with third place and our first podium of the season. Both qualifying and the race itself were great today. And it’s also looking good at the end of this first race weekend in terms of points.”
Jeffrey Schmidt (Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, Audi R8), P5 in the general and P3 in the Junior classifications: “We were never going to finish higher than fifth today. We couldn’t catch the cars in front of us. Christopher did a good job and moved up three places. I then just had to manage the position. It wasn’t so easy, since the pursuing bunch were pushing from behind. Still, I didn’t make any mistakes and defended P5 to the finish line.”
Christopher Haase (Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, Audi R8), P5: “I’m satisfied with fifth place, because it was important to score as many points as possible. We were also the best Audi team. The cars in front of us were just too fast this time. We will now analyse the data so that we can be stronger again in the next race.”
Christian Engelhart (GRT Grasser-Racing-Team, Lamborghini Huracán), P12: “Twelfth place is not a bad result after the first lap, in which we dropped way back down after a collision. I actually got a good start, but then the Mercedes in front of me made a mistake and skidded off track. He put me into a spin when he rejoined. We were last after that. The pursuit went quite well, and we gained quite a lot of places.”
Rolf Ineichen, (GRT Grasser-Racing-Team, Lamborghini Huracán), P12 in general classification and winner in the Trophy class: “It was a pity about that first lap. The team worked really well, and we found out a lot about the car. It was perfect today, but you have to be satisfied with finishing twelfth after dropping back to P28 on the first lap through no fault of your own.”