Lausitzring: Swiss remain in front 🎥

Highlights from the second GT3 race include the chaotic pit stop of the championship leaders, the consequences of which cost them their second win of the season.

The second-last race weekend of the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring actually got off to a very good start for Patric Niederhauser, who set the fastest time of all 30 GT3 sports cars in free practice. However, after an unsuccessful qualifying session on a wet track, he had to settle for 18th on the grid on Saturday.

In still miserable conditions, the driver from Berne in the Rutronik Racing Audi R8 LMS managed to finish in the top ten within four laps. However, his partner Kelvin van der Linde did not manage more than eighth place in the second half of the race. However, because a number of time penalties were subsequently deducted, the Audi duo moved up to fifth place, which resulted in three more valuable points.

What's going on?
On Sunday, the South African qualified third on the grid. Van der Linde advanced to second place at the expense of Jeffrey Schmidt from Liestal, who had started as a promising second in the Callaway Corvette but struggled with the traction of the V8 flounder on a damp track.

However, because of the dirt-covered windshield, he missed his pit, which at first caused perplexity for the waiting Swiss and ultimately meant a pit drive-through penalty.

Second win of the season given away
However, this did not cost too much time due to the ideal pit entry at the Lausitzring (shortcut of the last three corners), so that the unsuccessful driver change and its consequences only meant a loss of four positions in total.

However, as the leaders also subsequently fell far behind, the champions missed out on their second win of the season. The points they gave away hurt more.

Exciting showdown
Before next weekend's finale at Oschersleben, the Audi drivers lead Robert Renauer by five points. The latter finished third and second with his reserve partner Klaus Bachler and was the real winner of the sixth race weekend.

With Michael Ammermüller and Christian Engelhart following behind and Sven Müller in fifth place alone, three more Porsche drivers are in the title race. In addition, Mercedes teammates Maro Engel/Luca Stolz and the Audi duo Christopher Haase and Max Hofer, who won Saturday's race, still have a chance of overall victory. With this starting position, an exciting showdown is guaranteed.

Difficult premiere in the dark
Julien Apothéloz and Luci Trefz have a bit more breathing room at the back of the field in the ADAC GT4 Germany, which completed two one-hour races in darkness early on Saturday and Sunday evening.

However, numerous incidents almost resulted in longer yellow phases than pure race time. In addition, subsequent time penalties for the duos honored as winners and third-place finishers in the first race resulted in a completely different classification.

Subsequently on the podium
Apothéloz had qualified the yellow Mercedes-AMG GT4 in a good third place. In the extremely difficult conditions, however, the 19-year-old from Zurich took no risks at all in the starting phase and thus lost a few positions.

After a smart race also by Trefz, the car ran in fourth place, which subsequently became second place with correspondingly more points. The Hofor-BMW team Piana/Schrey, which is also still relevant in the championship, also benefited from the penalties as a late third.

Five title candidates left
On Sunday, Trefz and Apothéloz only finished eleventh after four safety car phases. And because, apart from Schrey/Piana (4th), who are now second in the standings, their direct opponents in the title fight scored fewer points or none at all, the Swiss and the German continue to lead the GT4 standings.

With 50 points up for grabs, five teams are still in contention for the title. So it's worth watching the final GT3 and GT4 races live or in replay on TV (on Sport1).

Stand ADAC GT Masters Stand ADAC GT4 Germany

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