How the numbers stack up: Facts and figures from an exciting ADAC GT Masters season

• Championship lead changes hands 40 times in 16 races
• BMW ALPINA most reliable vehicle of 2012
• Runners-up Alessi/Keilwitz cover most kilometres in the lead

The 2012 ADAC GT Masters delighted fans by setting many new records with more participants and more manufacturers than ever, with numerous thrilling finishes and a title fight without equal. Nine different driver pairs were victorious in the 16 races, and seven drivers kept their title chances alive right up until the final race. A record season in facts and figures.

International: A total of 121 drivers from 16 countries lined up in the 2012 ADAC GT Masters with 57 drivers coming from overseas. The grid was made up of super sports cars prepared by 29 teams from seven different countries.

Variety: Nine driver pairings took wins in the 16 races, and Christian Engelhart/Nick Tandy claimed the podium top spot the greatest number of times. The Porsche duo from Team Geyer & Weinig IT / Schütz Motorsport secured a total of four victories.

Young and old: Mercedes-Benz driver Maximilian Buhk aged 19, who moved up from Formel ADAC, was the youngest driver in the 2012 ADAC GT Masters field. The oldest driver, Roland Asch, is 42 years older than him. Touring car legend Roland Asch, father of the latest champion Sebastian Asch raced as a guest driver in a Chevrolet Camaro prepared by Mühlner Motorsport at the Red Bull Ring. The average age of the ADAC GT Masters drivers at the end of the season was 31 years.

Fastest driver: So far, no one has driven faster than Philip Eng in the ADAC GT Masters. In qualifying at Austria's Red Bull Ring, the Austrian driver put a McLaren MP4-12 prepared by MRS GT Racing on pole for race two, achieving an average speed of 171.9 km/h.

Fastest race: Mario Farnbacher and Niclas Kentenich secured victory at the Red Bull Ring in the second race in their Porsche 911 GT3 prepared by Farnbacher ESET Racing with an average speed of 159.3 km/h, covering 164 kilometres.

High drama: The closest finish happened right at the start of the season in the second race at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Engelhart/Tandy in a Porsche won against new champions, Asch/Götz, in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG by only 0.392 seconds. In a total of eight races, the runner-up has trailed the winner by less than a second.

Clearest win margin: Claudia Hürtgen's and Dominik Schwager's victory in the BMW Z4 prepared by Schubert Motorsport in the first race at the finale at Hockenheim turned out to be a particularly comfortable win. The BMW duo took the chequered flag 15 seconds clear of the rest of the field, the most decisive victory of the 2012 season.

Highly competitive field: The most tightly bunched field was at the Sachsenring where 23 supercars produced by eleven different manufacturers were covered by just one second in qualifying for the second race.

Variety is the spice of life: The championship lead changed hands 40 times between 17 different driver pairings in the 16 races of the 2012 season. The championship lead switched six times during the season between Lunardi/Martin, Alessi/Keilwitz, Christian Engelhart and Asch/Götz.

Silverware: A total of 33 different drivers finished on the podium in the 16 races. New champions Sebastian Asch/Maximilian Götz secured the greatest number of podiums. The Mercedes-Benz pair received a trophy in a total of eight races. Porsche was the best represented manufacturer on the podium (14 times).

Full house: 41 supercars ensured a packed grid for the season opener at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and the Austrian race weekend at the Red Bull Ring. On average, 38 vehicles took to the grid in the 16 races.

Kilometres spent in the lead: Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz covered the most kilometres in the lead in their Corvette prepared by Callaway Competition. The 'Vette, driven by the two new championship runners-up, led for 554 kilometres, 132 laps.

Reliability: The BMW ALPINA B6 of Maxime Martin and Dino Lunardi was the most reliable supercar of the 2012 season. The BMW ALPINA covered 2,355 of the maximum possible 2,381 race kilometres in the 16 races (563 laps out of 569).

Black gold: 4,543 tyres - 3,545 slicks and 998 wets - provided by exclusive tyre partner YOKOHAMA were used during the eight ADAC GT Masters race weekends.

Evenly matched: Twelve different drivers posted a fastest race lap in the 16 races. Only Maximilian Götz, Maxime Martin, Martin Ragginger and Diego Alessi succeeded in securing two fastest race laps.

Most successful rookie: Moving up from Formel ADAC to ADAC GT Masters was a great success for Maximilian Buhk. Placed eleventh, the youngest driver in the ADAC GT Masters field just missed the Top Ten but gained the accolade of 'best rookie' in 2012.

Most resounding victory: Only one driver pairing achieved a start-to-finish victory in the 2012 season: Christian Engelhard and Nick Tandy won the first race at the Lausitzring in their Porsche 911 GT3 from pole position without once losing the lead.

Pole-sitters: Eleven different drivers took pole position in 2012. Diego Alessi claimed the top spot three times in his Corvette, more often than any other driver, but the Porsche 911 was the car most commonly seen in pole position on the grid. A 911 claimed was on pole in five separate qualifying sessions.