GT Masters: Day of missed opportunities 🎥
In contrast to the DTM at Spa, the season opener in the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring was disappointing for the Swiss. Yet three of them were on course for the podium on August 1. The two-minute highlights of Race 1 show the demolition derby and the incidents involving Swiss cars. For Simona de [...]
The two-minute highlights of Race 1 show the demolition derby and the incidents involving Swiss cars.
For Simona de Silvestro, it could have been a perfect debut in the ADAC GT Masters on Swiss National Day. Klaus Bachler had handed over the Porsche to her in first position at the halfway point of the one-hour race.
Frustrated Simona
Although she wasn't able to maintain this position, the driver from Vaud was in third place until the Audi driver Christopher Mies shot her down. The fact that Mies and his team publicly apologized afterwards was little consolation for Simona and her team.
She also got her first dubious impression of the rough mores in the field.
Simona de Silvestro: "It was frustrating. Klaus did a mega job and drove us to the front. I could have held on to third place, but to be shot down like that is simply unnecessary. Maybe that's the way it is in the GT Masters, but for me it's not a car race. The pace itself was good. There are a few things I still need to do better, but everything is coming together nicely. Now we just need to have a bit more luck."
Simona crossed the finish line in 19th position after the time-consuming spin. On Sunday, she qualified 22nd among the 33 competitors, 31 of whom were within a second of each other on the just under 3.5-kilometer Lausitzring. With now significantly fewer retirements, there was only 16th place and once again no points.
No Saturday race for Jeffrey Schmidt
Even before the former Indy driver, Jeffrey Schmidt was robbed of a possible podium. His German Callaway teammate Markus Pommer was in fourth place when he rode an attack on the start/finish straight that completely missed the mark on the dirty side of the track and ended in a violent collision with the second-place Porsche.
In addition to the accident and the subsequent repair work during a night shift, the Liestaler was penalized ten positions in Sunday's race, which he had to start in 24th place. The great race to catch up still resulted in 12th place and a few championship points.
Harsh start to title defense
The champion duo of Patric Niederhauser and Kelvin van der Linde fell short of expectations, failing to finish higher than 6th and 5th in their Audi R8. At least they scored twice, which puts them in fourth intermediate place in the standings.
Rolf Ineichen's WRT Audi immediately rolled off the track on Saturday after contact with an enemy on the starting lap, but on the other day he and works driver Mirko Bortolli finished seventh. Their Belgian teammates Weerts/Vanthoor won the second, far less turbulent race from pole position in commanding fashion.
Otherwise, only Philip Ellis/Raffaele Marciello, who start for Great Britain and Italy respectively, finished tenth in the second race, and Philipp Frommenwiler (both Mercedes), who finished a good ninth on Saturday and twelfth on Sunday, scored points (top 15).
Feller as fastest junior unrewarded
Ricardo Feller (Audi) had the speed for a top classification on Saturday but a technical problem during the pit stop with driver change to Stefan Mücke threw him far behind. On Sunday, the Berliner qualified less well (25th) than the youngest driver in the field at 20 (7th) on the previous day, whereupon they only improved by three places.
The results of the two races and the championship standings can be found in the attached lists, further information on the homepage of the race series.
Results race 1 Lausitzring Results race 2 Lausitzring Stand after 2 races
