Jeffrey Schmidt (BWT Mücke Motorsport, Audi R8 LMS), winner in general classification and in the Pirelli Junior class: "What a perfect day! It's just indescribable. I've been working towards this first victory for a long time now. I came quite close on a couple of occasions in 2017, but now the moment has finally arrived. Many thanks to the team and Peter Mücke for making sure that our preparations for the season worked out so well. Winning is never easy, even though it may have looked like that today. The start was a bit dicey, but I got a push from the BMW on the straight which meant I was as fast as the Corvette. Keeping the lead from pole position was the key to our victory."
Stefan Mücke (BWT Mücke Motorsport, Audi R8 LMS), winner in general classification and in the Pirelli Junior class: "I'm absolutely speechless. To have won in such a competitive field is absolutely amazing, especially when you manage to do it as a member of your own team. Jeffrey clearly laid the groundwork for our win with his lap in qualifying. He did a great job. We hadn't expected to be in contention for pole position here. He got off to a good start and pulled out a small gap. We then had a good pit stop. After that, I tried to increase the lead, as the tyres were new to me and I didn't quite know how they would hold up in the final stages. But we saw it through to the end. I am so happy. To score a first victory with your own team is really something special."
Marvin Kirchhöfer (Callaway Competition, Corvette C7 GT3-R), P2 in general classification: "The race was not at all bad. The team timed the pit stop well, which is why we were able to regain second place. We can be reasonably satisfied with that."
Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition, Corvette C7 GT3-R), P2 in general classification: "It was good that we got past the BMW during the pit stop. But there was no way we were going to make any further progress. In the end, I had to watch out for my tyres, so I decided to play it safe. It is important for us to have scored our first points."
Robert Renauer (Precote Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), P3 in general classification: "I was able to make good one position at the start, and it was on the pit stop that we gained the crucial extra place to put us on the podium. Mathieu defended the position very well, despite coming under attack from the car behind. We knew that the situation with the tyres was getting critical late on, but he avoided making any mistakes and stayed focused through to the end of the race."
Mathieu Jaminet (Precote Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R), P3 in general classification: "It's great to be top of the championship now. You can't really ask for anything more. But it's still early in the season. This is my first podium with the team. We did everything right today, and we intend to get a good result tomorrow as well."
Maximilian Buhk (MANN-FILTER Team HTP, Mercedes-AMG GT3), P4 in general classification, P2 in the Pirelli Junior class: "I could have gone a lot faster than the Porsche in front of me, but on the long home straight, I never got close enough to overtake. Also, I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks and possibly throw away valuable points. Considering that we started from the fifth row, fourth place is a great result. Tomorrow morning, I will be doing my level best to qualify as far forward as possible for the second race. Then anything is possible with our Mercedes-AMG GT3 which has performed very well on this track, just as we expected it would."
Indy Dontje (MANN-FILTER Team HTP, Mercedes-AMG GT3), P4 in general classification, P2 in the Pirelli Junior class: "I got off to a good start, but then found myself in a convoy of cars all going at about the same speed. All I could do in the circumstances was defend my position. Our strategy was great, though. After the cars in front of me turned off into the pit lane, I had a free track and was able to go flat out. To our considerable surprise, Maxi came out in fourth place after our own driver change. And second place in the Junior class was also a gratifying result."
Timo Scheider (BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M6 GT3), P6 in general classification, P3 in the Pirelli Junior class: "Mikkel got off to a good start, but unfortunately, lost a couple of flicks early on, which did nothing for the car's performance, so in the end, my job was all about defending to the rear. Unfortunately, we were slightly obstructed at the pit stop, which cost us two places. At least we've scored a few more points with this sixth place."
Mikkel Jensen (BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M6 GT3), P6 in general classification, P3 in the Pirelli Junior class: "Sadly, we didn't do the business in qualifying, but our race pace was good. I was held up initially by a Porsche and unable to make any real progress. The tyres began to degrade towards the end of my stint, which didn't make things easy for Timo. He did a great job defending sixth position. That was the most we were going to get out of today."
Claudia Hürtgen (RWT Racing, Corvette C7 GT3-R), P8 in general classification, winner in the Pirelli Trophy class: "The race was a lot of fun. I found myself in interesting company when I came out after the stop, with a Mercedes in front of me and an Audi behind. I maintained a good pace. There were a few places where we were stronger than the Audi, and others where the Audi was better. I hoped for quite a time that the Mercedes would attack the BMW in front of it, so that maybe a gap would open up, but then I just focused on defending my position over the last few laps."
Sven Barth (RWT Racing, Corvette C7 GT3-R), P8 in general classification, winner in the Pirelli Trophy class: "I'm very satisfied, even though it's only P8 overall. I stayed out of all the trouble at the start and improved from 13th to ninth, and then we gained one more place. Claudia managed the race well and kept her position through to the finish line. Our pace was terrific towards the end and might have been good enough to take sixth or even fifth place, but overtaking is tricky in this highly competitive field."
Timo Bernhard (KÜS Team75 Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R), P12 in general classification: "Our qualifying was not brilliant. We couldn't get anything to come together. Obviously, when you start from 23rd on the grid, you can't expect to finish in the points. Still, Kévin got off to a good start and dealt well with the situation in the collision. He was tenth at the pit stop. I took the car over, was twelfth initially, moved up to eleventh but then lost a position. Our speed wasn't enough to enable us to compete up front. We would have liked to score one or two points, for sure, but things didn't work out, unfortunately. We've now got some head-scratching to do to see how we can improve the car a bit for tomorrow, and then we can attack again."
Maximilian Götz (MANN-FILTER Team HTP, Mercedes-AMG GT3), DNF: "I suddenly found I couldn't change gear. It's a pity, because things were going really well until that happened. I passed Scheider's BMW with a quick out-lap after the stop but then got stuck behind Klingmann. I think we could have pushed forwards quite well, but then our unfortunate problem cropped up."