Audi driver Ricardo Feller not only finished third overall in Saturday’s race at the Sachsenring, but also took victory in the Pirelli Junior competition.
Feller had qualified fifth and immediately gained one position at the start. He was then embroiled in a close battle with Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti. When Bortolotti was forced to retire, Feller inherited third place. His partner Christopher Mies then brought the car home in that position. This was Feller’s fourth win of the season in the Pirelli Junior competition.
“Before the race, we did not expect to be on the podium, and we are super happy to still be leading the championship,” said Feller. I had a good start and immediately tried to overtake Luca Stolz. Fortunately, we were both still in the race after the slight contact. The battle with Mirko after the safety car was really exciting and fair. Unfortunately, they then had a technical issue.”
The second-best Junior in race nine of the season was fellow Audi driver Charles Weerts (Team WRT). Third place went to the local favourite from Dresden, Maximilian Paul (T3 Motorsport), in the best-placed Lamborghini. Dennis Marschall and Kim-Luis Schramm from the Rutronik Racing by Tece team continue to top the table, having finished sixth in the class in their Audi.
Victory in the Pirelli Trophy also went to an Audi driver, in the form of Car Collection Motorsport’s Florian Spengler. And yet the race started with a scary moment for the Swabian driver: “I had to slam the brakes on at the start and another car just made light contact with the back of mine. After that, the tyres were smoking at first, but fortunately that soon stopped. The damage did cost a bit of performance. I really had to battle in the race, and came under a lot of pressure from behind. Markus Winkelhock then did a good job of bringing the result home. Without the collision at the start, we could definitely have finished higher up the overall standings, as the team did a good job and gave me a great car for qualifying.” The class victory for Spengler saw him extend his lead in the competition for non-professionals.