Toksport WRT duo wins Saturday’s race at the Lausitzring. All three manufacturers – Liger, Ginetta and Duqueine – on the podium. Winners Berkay Besler and Marvin Dienst also triumph in the Junior competition
Excitement aplenty, a wet track, and a dominant winner in the end: Saturday’s race in the Prototype Cup Germany at the DEKRA Lausitzring produced some really good motorsport and delighted the many spectators at the Family & Friends Festival. In the end, Berkay Besler (23/TUR) and Marvin Dienst (25/Lampertheim, both Toksport WRT) took victory in a Ligier JS P320, ahead of the Ginetta G61-LT-P3 duo of Axcil Jefferies (28/ZWE) and Maximilian Hackländer (32/Rüthen, both Konrad Motorsport). Gary Hauser (30/LUX) and Sebastian von Gartzen (29/Butzbach, both Racing Experience) completed the podium in a Duqueine D08. “Having led the championship at the halfway point, our goal was to continue in the same fashion. We did a good job of that today. Our fourth success in five races is another step towards the title,” said Dienst on the podium, clutching the winners’ trophy.
Ginetta driver Jefferies started the first wet race in the history of the series from pole position. An eventful start saw Gartzen briefly take the lead in his Duqueine. However, the Racing Experience driver overshot the first corner and dropped back to fifth. Donar Munding (20/Stuttgart, Mühlner Motorsport) also made a good start, passed pole-sitter Jefferies and hung onto the lead. As the race progressed, he proceeded to pull away from the rest of the field in his Duqueine. However, roughly eight minutes into the race, he skidded off the wet track and into the gravel bed, which saw him fall back to fifth place.
Jefferies adopted the lead, ahead of Duqueine driver Oscar Tunjo (26/COL, Rinaldi Racing). Behind them, Berkay Besler was on the attack in the Ligier. Having started from eighth on the grid, he climbed one position after another. As the first quarter of the race drew to a close, he overtook Gartzen, who by that point had fought his way back to third place. Besler then set off in pursuit of the two leaders. “After qualifying, which was really tough for me, things went much better in the race. I gained five positions, which I was very pleased with,” said Besler. The Turk was the first of the leading group to come in for his pit stop, and handed the car over to team-mate Marvin Dienst, who had recovered from his race in the ADAC GT Masters.
The second part of the race did not go to plan at first for Maximilian Hackländer, who took over the leading Ginetta from Jefferies. An excursion into the gravel and, shortly thereafter, a spin on the wet track saw Hackländer drop to third behind Mateo Villagomez (20/ECU), Oscar Tunjo’s team-mate at Rinaldi Racing, and Dienst.
Marvin Dienst was the main protagonist in the second part of the race. First, he overtook Villagomez to move into the lead. He then consistently set fast lap times and had opened a lead of 33 seconds over the rest of the field by the time he crossed the finish line in first place. “Today was the first time I have driven an LMP3 car in the rain,” said Dienst. “However, as I had just driven in wet track conditions in the ADAC GT Masters race, I knew roughly where I had to be particularly cautious. That definitely helped me a bit. Unlike in free practice, I was not able to test the limit in the race. However, I gradually found my rhythm and was always able to drive faster.” As well as overall victory, Besler/Dienst also won the Junior competition.
Behind Dienst, who was driving like a man possessed, a battle for second place was developing between Hackländer and Villagomez, from which the German ultimately came out on top. Villagomez was then overtaken on the final lap by Gary Hauser, who went on to take third place together with team-mate Sebastian von Gartzen. Fifth place went to Leonard Weiss (24/Monschau) and Torsten Kratz (51/Mönchengladbach, both WTM Racing) in another Duqueine. This was also enough to earn Kratz victory in the Trophy competition. Duqueine drivers Jesse Salmenautio (21/FIN) and Sebastian Arenram (39/SWE, both Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport) came home sixth. Donar Munding, who led at the start, and Matthias Lüthen (41/Hamburg) took seventh place, ahead of the Ginetta duo of Jacob Erlbacher (21/AUT) and Michael Lyons (31/GBR, both Gebhardt Motorsport).
Axcil Jefferies – Second place for Konrad Motorsport: “We would obviously have liked to finish one place higher. However, we are improving from race weekend to race weekend. My start was not perfect, but I remained confident and wanted to take the race as it came. We actually took the lead again briefly. On the whole, Toksport WRT was a little bit too fast for us today. We will push hard again tomorrow. I am hoping for dry conditions.”
Maximilian Hackländer – Second place for Konrad Motorsport: “You always have to be happy with second place. Axcil drove superbly, there is no doubt about that. However, it was by no means a brilliant performance from me. It took me a long time to find my feet. I was driving the car in the rain for the first time. We had little grip in the wet. When it started to dry out a little towards the end, I found my rhythm.”
