The 2016 ADAC GT Masters season in facts and figures

• ADAC GT Masters newcomer De Phillippi sets several new records
• Extremely competitive field once again in the 2016 Super Sports Car League
• New super sports cars win all 14 races

Munich: A good month or so has passed since the dramatic finale in Hockenheim, time now to review the 2016 ADAC GT Masters as a whole. Who secured the most victories? Which country fielded the highest number of entrants? Just how close was the closest finish? Here’s our round up of the season’s most interesting facts and figures:

2016 marked the tenth season of the ADAC GT Masters. The Super Sports Car League and with it, a GT3 class completely new to Germany, debuted within the context of the ADAC 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2007.

Christopher Haase was the only driver still in the field in 2016, who had been there at the start in the ADAC GT Masters in 2007 when he was crowned champion.

A total of 148 ADAC GT Masters races have been staged. The Corvette Z06.R GT3 is the only super sports car to have taken part in every race.

The ADAC has been consistent in its choice of racetracks. Four racetracks – the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, the Lausitzring, the Sachsenring and the Nürburgring – have been on the racing calendar every year.

The 2016 champion, Connor De Phillippi, is the first American to contest a full season in the ADAC GT Masters. “2016 was my fourth full year of racing in Europe. And then, to go out and win this major championship means a lot to me as an American,” said the 23-year-old.

91 drivers took part in at least one of the 14 races in 2016. With 39 drivers, Germany was the country most represented, followed by the Netherlands and Switzerland with 8 entrants each and then Austria with 6.

25 cars on average placed in each race of the 2016 season. The highest number of cars finishing was at the season opener in Oschersleben (30). No outfit achieved a 100 percent success rate, but no less than eleven teams managed 13 out of 14 possible finishes.

The average age of all competitors at the end of the 2016 season was 28.8.

Three women, Rahel Frey, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Claudia Hürtgen, were in the 2016 line up. Frey and team-mate Philip Geipel took a win at Zandvoort, while GT3 newcomer Åhlin-Kottulinsky achieved her first points-scoring finish in the penultimate race of the season at Hockenheim. Hürtgen contested two race weekends for Schubert Motorsport and secured two points.

Overall, drivers posted 523 laps during the 2016 season, which equates to a total distance of 2,049,125 race metres.

At the season opener in Oschersleben, Dutch driver Loris Hezemans (18) and the American, Boris Said (53), were the youngest and oldest drivers in the field to make up a team.

The closest finish of any race in 2016 was at the Lausitzring where after 41 laps, Robert Renauer and Martin Ragginger in the Porsche 911 had a 0.36-second lead over Rolf Ineichen and Christian Engelhart in the Lamborghini Huracán. Renauer & Ragginger also secured the biggest lead by finishing 6.207 seconds up on fellow Porsche drivers David Jahn & Kévin Estre at Hockenheim.

Seven different driver pairings decided the 14 wins among themselves. David Jahn and Kévin Estre achieved the most wins with four in total. Jules Gounon and Daniel Keilwitz took three, and De Phillippi & Mies won the title with just one win.

There were lots of different faces on the winners’ podium in the ADAC GT Masters with 32 drivers finishing in the Top Three. Champions De Phillippi & Mies stood on the podium the most times, taking part in seven champagne showers in all.

Nine different drivers secured at least one pole position in the 2016 season. Connor De Phillippi performed best in the battle against the clock with three top grid slots to his name.

Who had a clear run the most times? The Porsche of David Jahn and Kévin Estre bearing start number 17 notched up 136 laps in the lead, corresponding to a good quarter of all laps. The lead changed hands 39 times in the 14 races.

The ADAC GT Masters has always been well-known for its highly competitive field, as can be seen from the small gaps between drivers in qualifying. Just one second covered the top 23 teams in qualifying for the second race at the Red Bullring.

Eventual champions De Phillippi & Mies headed to the season finale at Hockenheim with just a two-point lead on rivals Gounon & Keilwitz. Things in the standings had never before been this close in the run-up to the last two races in the ten-year history of the ADAC GT Masters.

No less than six new super sports cars – the Audi R8, the BMW M6, the Corvette C7, the Lamborghini Huracán, the Mercedes-AMG and the Porsche 911 – contested their first full season in the ADAC GT Masters. Porsche was the most successful brand with six first places and five pole positions.

Sebastian Asch, Daniel Keilwitz and Luca Ludwig reached the milestone of 100 starts in the ADAC GT Masters during 2016. Asch now holds the record for entries, having lined up in 121 races to Toni Seiler’s 114.