GT Masters: Ricardo Feller shows his maturity
FIRST LEADING ROUND Driver of the weekend from the camp of the Swiss drivers at the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring was Ricardo Feller. Unfortunately, the 18-year-old was not allowed to keep his second place from Saturday. Giorgio Maggi scored the first points in the Honda NSX. For Ricardo Feller and his German professional partner Christopher Haase, the first day of racing began at [...]
For Ricardo Feller and his German professional partner Christopher Haase, the first day of racing got off to a perfect start in midsummer weather at the Nürburgring. The Aargauer, who turned 18 on June 1, qualified the pink Audi R8 LMS from BWT Mücke Motorsport for sixth place on the grid.
The junior had never been so far in front before - and when he was already in the lead in the first corner and held it despite several safety car phases, all the dams broke in his camp. Unfortunately, he had already left his starting corridor before the traffic lights changed...
First 5, then 30 seconds penalty
Initially, only a five-second penalty followed at the driver change. Regardless of this, Haase was back in third place after all the competitors had pitted.
The Audi contract driver worked his way up to second place by the time he crossed the finish line after 39 laps on the GP circuit in the Eifel. Thus, the junior and the veteran climbed the overall winners' podium together for the first time.
However, their performance is not included in the statistics. In the evening, the stewards extended the penalty to one pit stop, which equates to a 25-second time penalty. This retroactively threw the duo back to 15th place.
They almost managed a clean revenge on Sunday. Starting from fourth position, they held this position flawlessly to the finish line. It was just not enough for the overall podium, but Feller/Haase took second place in the Junior classification, directly behind their teammates Ortmann/Winkelhock.
Ricardo Feller: "It was a roller coaster weekend. We had an extremely good setup for qualifying on Saturday, with which I qualified better than ever before. Unfortunately, I flinched a second too early at the start. The subsequent pit stop penalty came a bit late. Nevertheless, nobody can take the lead laps and the emotions away from me. That makes me want to do more."
Bad luck for Jeffrey Schmidt
Team-mate Jeffrey Schmidt qualified tenth for the first race. Due to an accident in front of him, the man from Basel had to swerve through the gravel trap, which dropped him and partner Stefan Mücke to the back of the field.
On Sunday, Schmidt was hit by a competitor in the battle for seventh place, after which he again made brief acquaintance with the gravel bed. The two twelfth-place finishes did not earn him any further points.
In ninth place in the standings, the third-placed Swiss driver at the Spa 24 Hours remains the best-placed driver. Feller/Haase advanced to 16th place, overtaking Rolf Ineichen and his partner Christian Engelhart, who scored only one point in the first race with the Grasser Lamborghini.
Progress with the Honda NSX
The Honda Team Schubert Motorsport with its drivers Giorgio Maggi from Hergiswil and Christopher Dreyspring from Germany achieved a first respectable success in the field of 35 GT3 sports cars.
On the fourth Masters weekend of 2018, they brought the new Honda NSX GT3 into the points for the first time from sixth on the grid in the first race, which only 25 teams finished in classification. Seventh place even became sixth on Saturday evening due to the additional penalty for Feller/Haase and third in the Junior standings.
In eleventh place, Nikolaj Rogivue with Frédéric Vervisch (B) in the Aust Motorsport Audi R8 missed the top ten in the first race by one second, while Philip Ellis (GB), who grew up in Zug, finished eleventh on Sunday by almost five seconds.
Compression at the top of the table
The two race wins went to Dontje/Buhk (DNL/D) on a Mercedes of local hero Zakspeed in the first race and Salaquarda/Stippler (CZ/D) on an Audi of the first-time successful team I.S.R. from Prague in the second race.
Although they came away empty-handed at the Nürburgring, the Germans Daniel Keilwitz and Marvin Kirchhöfer (he drove for R-Motorsport/Aston Martin St. Gallen at the Spa 24 Hours) continue to lead the championship with their Callaway Corvette after four events (= eight races over one hour each with driver changes).
However, Markus Pommer and Maxi Götz in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 from HTP Motorsport closed the gap to the leaders to within one point by finishing 3rd and 2nd.
The championship remains exciting in the second half of the season with three more races at Zandvoort (NL), the Sachsenring and Hockenheim (finale on September 22/23) - unfortunately, the Swiss don't seem to play a role in the title.
