Apothéloz: From midfield to the podium 🎥
THIRD IN HOCKENHEIM At the ADAC GT4 Germany in Hockenheim, Julien Apothéloz celebrated a podium with partner Luci Trefz. The man from Zurich learned a lot in the process - including which mistakes to avoid in the future. The highlights from Race 2 at Hockenheim show how far back the yellow "Little Mamba" started and how Apothéloz' partner [...]
The highlights of Race 2 at Hockenheim show how far back the yellow "Little Mamba" started and how Apothéloz's partner Luci Trefz fought back in a duel.
As part of the third event for the 2020 ADAC GT Masters on the GP circuit at Hockenheim, where unfortunately spectators were still not allowed in the grandstands, the GT4 class started their season races 3 and 4.
Good starting position destroyed
As fourth fastest in his qualifying session, Julien Apothéloz would have secured a place on the second row of the grid for the first race over one hour with the Mercedes-AMG GT4 of HTP Winward Motorsport.
Unfortunately, the duo, which had last won at the Nürburgring, received a ten-place grid penalty retrospectively. A consequence of three warnings for relatively minor infractions in the course of the races so far.
First a fifth place...
Fortunately, Apothéloz got off to a perfect start, making up a few positions. After half an hour, he handed over the "Little Mamba," as the yellow sister car of the big Mercedes-AMG GT3 in team sponsor Mann-Filter colors is called, in fourth place.
Julien Apothéloz: "Luci only came back onto the track in eighth position after the pit stop, which had to last seven seconds longer for us according to the regulations because of the victory at the Nürburgring, and then made up three places. Considering the circumstances, we were actually happy with this result."
... then a podium
The winner of the 2018 AutoScout24 Young Driver Challenge and the German proved the other day that there is more in it. Trefz failed to qualify for a number of reasons beyond his control, so that he only managed grid position 13.
Similar to the 19-year-old from Zurich on the previous day, he immediately made up a few places in the opening phase and came in eighth for the driver change. Apothéloz then got everything out of the car and brought it home in third place.
The second podium of the season in four races was perfect.
Julien Apothéloz: "This is actually what we always strive for, although we can only really be satisfied with a win. But at least we're still third in the championship, with the rivals ahead of us having increased their lead somewhat. But everything is still open. The learning effect at Hockenheim was great because we had to fight our way out of midfield in two races. We just have to avoid mistakes like cautions and penalty transfers in the future. All of us in the team are motivated and are looking forward to traveling to the Sachsenring in two weeks."
Double victory for KTM, 2nd place for Hofor-BMW
Both race wins were taken by Austrians Florian Janits and Reinhard Kofler in a KTM X-Bow GT4 Evo. The Swiss-German team Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport brought the better of the two BMW M4s of Gabriele Piana and Michael Schrey home in 4th and 2nd place.
The Hofor/Bonk duo occupies first place in the Championship table second intermediate place behind a Porsche Cayman team that has so far always finished on the podium and ahead of Apothéloz/Trefz, who lead the Junior classification, and the Hockenheim winners.
The action continues again on the first weekend in October as part of the ADAC GT Masters at the Sachsenring.
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