Corvette one-two in ADAC GT Masters at the Motorsport Festival Lausitzring

Klettwitz: The winners of the second race in the Motorsport Festival at the Lausitzring were Jules Gounon (21 F) and Daniel Keilwitz (26, DEU, both Callaway Competition). The Corvette duo celebrated their second victory of the season after taking the lead halfway through the race. “P1 – what more could you want?” asked series newcomer Jules Gounon rhetorically. “I’m getting more and more accustomed to this car. My thanks to the team.” Making it a Corvette one-two victory were Patrick Assenheimer (24, DEU) and Dominik Schwager (39, DEU, both Callaway Competition). Third place for the Audi R8 pairing of Connor De Phillippi (23, USA) and Christopher Mies (27, DEU, both Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) was enough for them to retain their championship lead. Over the course of the weekend, 67,500 spectators attended the first ever Lausitzring Motorsport Festival featuring both the ADAC GT Masters and the DTM as headline acts.

Thrilling start as Schwager defends pole

With temperatures soaring to summer highs, the spectators saw an exciting first lap in which a string of collisions brought out the safety car. Among the victims were the two winners of the first race: Robert Renauer (31, DEU) and Martin Ragginger (28, A, both Precote Herberth Motorsport) in a Porsche 911 as well as Rolf Ineichen (38, CH) and Christian Engelhart (29, DEU, both GRT Grasser Racing Team) in a Lamborghini Huracán went out at this early stage. At the restart, pole-sitter Schwager successfully defended the lead ahead of fellow Corvette driver Keilwitz and Lamborghini man Mirko Bortolotti (26, I, GRT Grasser Racing Team).

Schwager retained the lead in a closely fought battle with Keilwitz through to the change of drivers. After the pit stops, there was then a new race leader as Gounon, team-mate of Keilwitz, positioned himself in front of the Lamborghini driven by Luca Stolz (20, DEU, GRT Grasser Racing Team). Assenheimer’s Corvette, which had spent the first stint in the lead, now slotted into third place. At the restart after a second safety car deployment, Assenheimer slipped past Stolz in the Lamborghini to restore the twin Corvette supremacy. Meanwhile, front-runner Gounon was wrapping up win number two for himself and Keilwitz by a margin of 2.6 seconds. Gounon also won the Junior classification for drivers under 25 years.

Behind the two Corvettes, the Audi partnership of Mies and De Phillippi took third place by default after the Lamborghini driven by Stolz and Bortolotti incurred a drive-through penalty for a transgression during the mandatory pit stop; they ultimately finished seventh. Next followed two Porsches securing their best respective results of the current campaign: in P4 were David Jahn (25, DEU) Speyer) and Matteo Cairoli (20, I, both KÜS TEAM75 Bernhard), and in P5 Marvin Dienst (19, DEU) and Christopher Zanella (26, CH, both bigFM Racing Team Schütz Motorsport).

BMW Juniors Jesse Krohn (25, FIN) and Louis Delétraz (19, CH, both Schubert Motorsport) registered the first championship points of 2016 for the new BMW M6. As in the first race of the Lausitzring weekend, the two Lamborghini drivers Patrick Kujala (20, FIN) and Miloš Pavlović (33, SRB, both Bonaldi Motorsport) again scored points, this time for a P8 finish. Markus Pommer (25, DEU) and Markus Winkelhock (35, DEU, both Phoenix Racing) driving an Audi R8 came ninth ahead of tenth-placed ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Lukas Schreier (20, DEU) partnered by Xavier Maassen (35, NL) notching up their first point of the season in an Aust Motorsport Audi.

Comments from the winners

Jules Gounon (Callaway Competition Corvette C7): “I have to admit, things are going really well for us. As a rookie, however, I’m not looking at the championship table but rather focusing on each race as it comes. I’m getting more accustomed to the new Corvette with each outing. My thanks to the team who, as always, have done such a great job. The race was a lot of fun. This is a highly competitive field of entrants.”

Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition Corvette C7): “Clearly, we’re very happy with this victory. The start went well for me. On the run-in to the first corner, I briefly got ahead of the second Callaway Corvette driven by Dominik [Schwager], but I then drifted wide of the racing line on the second corner and didn’t have enough traction. That allowed him to counter the move. So for the moment, I just slotted into place and followed behind. When the pit stop window opened, I stayed out a bit longer and went as fast as I could. That was the decisive factor in us coming out ahead after the change of drivers.”

Fans wishing to experience the ADAC GT Masters live at the racetrack can purchase tickets for all fixtures for the price of 20 euros, which includes access to the paddock, from www.adac.de/motorsport.