Porsche duo Engelhart/Tandy win in wheel-to-wheel finish

• Engelhart takes over at the top after third victory of the season
• Swen Dolenc triumphs once again in amateur stakes
• Race affected by two long safety car phases

Perfect weather plus a thrilling wheel-to-wheel finish: The fans at the Lausitzring were on the edge of their seats for the last few laps of the ADAC GT Masters. The Porsche 911 of Christian Engelhart (25, Kösching) and Nick Tandy (27, GB / Team Geyer & Weinig EDV – Schütz Motorsport) crossed the line just 0.4 seconds ahead of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of Sebastian Asch (26, Ammerbuch) and Maximilian Götz (26, Uffenheim / kfzteile24 MS RACING Team) after a close-fought start-to-finish race. Both winner Tandy and runner-up Götz were in agreement: “That was a fantastic but also a very fair fight.”

Key facts, Lausitzring, Race 1

Length of track: 4,534 metres
Weather: 26ºC, sunny
Pole Position for Race 1: Christian Engelhart (Team Geyer & Weinig EDV-Porsche 911) 01:43.911 mins
Winner in Race 1: Christian Engelhart / Nick Tandy (Team Geyer & Weinig EDV – Schütz Motorsport-Porsche 911)
Fastest race lap: Diego Alessi (Callaway Competition-Corvette Z06.R GT3), 01:45.192 mins

Start-to-finish victory for Porsche duo Engelhart and Tandy

Two prolonged safety car phases punctuated the first of two ADAC GT Masters races at the Lausitzring, yet neither interruption was able to knock Engelhart and Tandy off their stride. One lap into the race, the safety car took up position in front of pole-sitter Engelhart after Corvette driver Andreas Wirth (27, Heidelberg / Callaway Competition) was spun round by an opponent and collided with Christoper Haase’s (25, Kirchleus / Mamerow Racing) Audi R8. Following the restart on Lap 5, Engelhart saw off a challenge from the winner of last year’s equivalent fixture, Florian Stoll (31, Rickenbach / kfzteile24 MS RACING Team) in his Mercedes-Benz. Just before the pit stop window, the safety car was deployed again following an accident involving Porsche driver Christoph Schrezenmeier (41, Oberhaching, Team GT3 Kasko). Though Schrezenmeier was uninjured, it took so long to remove his damaged car that the race restarted only 13 minutes before the clock ran out.

Tandy had taken over from Engelhart after a perfect pit stop and had maintained a comfortable lead, but the race now became a close-run sprint to the finish. The job of chasing down the black and yellow Porsche had fallen to Maximilian Götz whose Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG had moved up from fourth place to second after a copybook pit stop. The black Mercedes-Benz harried the Porsche for the rest of the race. Götz positioned himself alongside Tandy twice on the last two laps, but thanks to the superior traction of the Porsche, the Brit was able to ward off his rival’s unwanted attention and cross the finish line a length ahead to score his third victory of the season.

“The Mercedes picked up speed as the race went on, and I had to push the Porsche to its very limits to stay in front,” said Tandy. “It was a fair fight and we both made the podium – it was good fun.” For Christian Engelhart who dislodged Asch/Götz at the top of the standings with this third win of the season, this was first and foremost a team performance. “We did a really great job today as a team and had to push hard in every conceivable way to beat the fast Mercedes.” Maximilian Götz was not disappointed with second place. “With the championship in mind, I wasn’t prepared to take any risks. I managed to get alongside Tandy twice, but he had the better line for acceleration out of every turn.”

Robert Renauer and Nicolas Armindo watched the duel for victory from the best seats in the house; the Porsche pair were in third place from start to finish. ADAC Sport Foundation protégé Mario Farnbacher (20, Ansbach) and Niclas Kentenich (24, Neuss / Farnbacher ESET Racing) held onto fourth place in another Porsche 911. Fifth place went to Dominik Baumann (19, Austria) and Hari Proczyk (36, Austria / HEICO Motorsport) in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, who finished ahead of team-mates Maximilian Buhk (19, Dassendorf) and Andreas Simonsen 22, Sweden / HEICO Motorsport).

Dolenc consolidates lead in amateur classification

Swen Dolenc (44, Maulbronn / FACH AUTO TECH) who shares a Porsche 911 with Martin Ragginger (24, Austria) crossed the line in seventh position to record yet another victory in the amateur stakes. Joining him on the amateur podium were Porsche driver René Bourdeaux (37, Munich / Team GT3 Kasko) and Kristian Poulsen (36, Denmark / Young Driver AMR) in an Aston Martin V12 Vantage.

Karl Wendlinger out of luck in closing stage

Ex-Formula 1 star Karl Wendlinger (43, Austria / Seyffarth Motorsport) in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG came agonisingly close to a Top Ten finish in his debut ADAC GT Masters race. Having taken over from Jan Seyffarth (26, Querfurt) for the second stint, Wendlinger looked to have at least one championship point sewn up before a minor bump with another car obliged him to return the Gullwing to the pits three laps before the end. The eagerly anticipated clash of former F1 team-mates Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (45, Neuss / Callaway Competition) in his Corvette has now been postponed to Sunday: Frentzen missed out on his stint altogether after team-mate Wirth was involved in the collision on Lap 1.

Porsches line up 1-2-3 for Sunday’s race

The second of the two ADAC GT Masters races at the Lausitzring this weekend starts as a Porsche lockout, with three 911s occupying the first three places on the grid. Martin Ragginger shares the front row with the winner of Race 1, Nick Tandy. Robert Renauer in the third Porsche and Maxime Martin in the BMW ALPINA are on Row 2.