Owega and Seppänen return from the summer break with victory at the Sachsenring

• Landgraf duo Salman Owega and Elias Seppänen move to the top of the championship
• Second podium for Schubert drivers Eduardo Coseteng and Ben Green
• Maximilian Götz takes third place with HRT team-mate Petru Umbrarescu

Hohenstein-Ernstthal. Win number three of the season and the championship lead in the ADAC GT Masters for Salman Owega (Cologne) and Elias Seppänen (FIN) in their Mercedes-AMG GT3. The two Landgraf Motorsport drivers celebrated a commanding victory in the seventh race of the season at the Sachsenring. “The third win in the ADAC GT Masters feels awesome. Up until the safety car shortly before the end of the race, everything had gone to plan. I refused to let that knock me out of my stride. I was able to take advantage of the impressive job Salman had done before me, and brought the car home in first place. We now want to hold onto the championship lead until the end of the season,” said Seppänen. After an eventful conclusion to the race, it was Ben Green (Schubert Motorsport) who crossed the finish line in second place. The Brit shared the cockpit of the BMW M4 GT3 with Filipino Eduardo Coseteng. The Mercedes-AMG duo of Petru Umbrarescu (RO) and Maximilian Götz (Uffenheim/both Haupt Racing Team) completed the podium in third place.

The first race after the summer break took place in perfect conditions: temperatures around 29 degrees Celsius awaited the international drivers in the ADAC GT Masters at the 3.645-kilometre circuit in Hohenstein-Ernstthal. Pole-sitter Owega benefitted from the best possible starting position and defended his lead without coming under any serious threat. He remained at the head of the field until the pit stop, when he handed the Mercedes-AMG GT3 to team-mate Seppänen. The 19-year-old maintained their lead, despite a safety car phase in the final few laps, and went on to take the chequered flag and victory.

The battle for second place was not decided until the closing stages of the race. Green pulled off the decisive overtaking manoeuvre after the re-start on the penultimate lap, and he and Coseteng were ultimately rewarded with their second podium of the season, having also featured on the rostrum at the opening round in Hockenheim. “I had never been on the podium at the Sachsenring before. It was great to manage that today. The safety car phase allowed us to cool our tyres a little. That gave me the opportunity to attack again,” explained two-time race winner Green. Third place went to Götz. The 2012 ADAC GT Masters champion called on all of his experience and, together with team-mate Umbrarescu, climbed five positions over the course of the race. “It is nice to be back on the podium in the ADAC GT Masters. I set some fast lap times in my stint. I knew that the neutralisation caused by the safety car would give me a chance. In the end, I put everything on the line and pulled off a great manoeuvre,” said Götz.

Alain Valente (CH) and Ralf Aron (EST) finished fourth on the undulating track. In doing so, the Haupt Racing Team drivers completed a strong result for Mercedes-AMG, with three cars in the top four. Fifth place went to the Porsche duo of ADAC Stiftung Sport driver Finn Gehrsitz (Stuttgart) and Sven Müller (Bingen/both Team Joos by Racemotion). Lithuanians Jonas Gelžinis and Jonas Karklys (both NordPass by Juta Racing) finished sixth in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 to record their best result in the ADAC GT Masters. Seventh over the finish line were Lamborghini drivers Benjamin Hites (CHL) and Marco Mapelli (I/both GRT Grasser-Racing-Team). Jannes Fittje (Langenhain) and Nico Menzel (Kelberg/both Huber Motorsport) ended the 60-minute sprint in eighth place in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The ADAC GT Masters goes in search of its next race winner on Sunday. Live coverage of race two on free-to-air TV begins at 15:00 on Sport1. Fans can follow qualifying, which gets underway at 08:30, on the free YouTube channel @adacmotorsports