The opening round of the ADAC GT Masters season at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben produced some fascinating facts and stories. Enjoy the Paddock Radar from the opening event at the circuit near Magdeburg.
ADAC GT Masters drivers on “PS on Air” The established “PS on Air” live chat saw host Patrick Simon welcome race winners Maxime Oosten (NL) and Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main/both FK Performance) in the pit lane, along with the third-placed pairing of Max Reis (Ramstein) and Kwanda Mokoena (ZA) from Haupt Racing Team. Together, they looked back at the opening race of the new ADAC GT Masters season. You can find the full show here.
Impressive win ratio for Maxime Oosten When he made his debut last year, Dutchman Oosten immediately claimed his maiden victory in the ADAC GT Masters. Back then, he won the Saturday race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria alongside BMW works driver Bruno Spengler (CAN). In Oschersleben, he again won the first race of the weekend, this time together with Leon Köhler. That gives Oosten a remarkable win ration of 50 percent after the opening round in the Magdeburg Börde region of Germany.
Prominent figures from the world of sim racing and politics present the trophies After Saturday’s race, ADAC Sport President Dr. Gerd Ennser and reigning DTM eSports champion Tim Jarschel shared the honourable job of presenting the successful drivers with their trophies on the podium. Sven Schulze was responsible for the trophy presentation on Sunday. Schulze was at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben to watch the season-opener in his role as Minister for Economic Affairs, Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry of the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt.
A host of new faces in the starting field Many drivers were making their first appearances in the ADAC GT Masters at the opening round of the season. A total of 18 competitors made their debut at the weekend – including last year’s DTM driver David Schumacher (Salzburg/Haupt Racing Team), who immediately impressed with pole position in the second qualifying session.
Youngest podium ever As part of the realignment of the ADAC GT Masters, the series will this year primarily provide young drivers with an attractive platform, on which to state their claim for one of the coveted DTM cockpits through the “Road to DTM” programme. The new profile of the series was immediately apparent on the podium: the average age of the top three on Saturday was just 19.5 years.
Young and fast At 16 years and 31 days, Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) from the Landgraf Motorsport team became the youngest ADAC GT Masters driver of all time at the opening weekend. Victory in the Sunday race ensured that he also went down in the history books as the youngest race winner in this iconic championship.
