Sprint victory for BMW team FK Performance keeps title race exciting

• Third win of this season’s ADAC GT Masters for Maxime Oosten and Leon Köhler
• Landgraf Motorsport retains championship lead, Seppänen wins “Road to DTM” competition
• Swiss team Fach Auto Tech triumphs in ProAm class

Spa-Francorchamps. A big win for Maxime Oosten (NL) and Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main) in the BMW M4 GT3 of FK Performance: the German/Dutch duo claimed its third win of the ADAC GT Masters season at Spa-Francorchamps, winning the 40-minute sprint at the circuit also known as the Ardennes Rollercoaster. “I am overjoyed that we won. First place means we gained a few points on the championship leaders and have significantly improved our chances of winning the title,” said Oosten. His team-mate Köhler was relieved after the race: “On the whole, it was a difficult weekend for us. The clutch was particularly troublesome, but we won in the end, and I am delighted.” The BMW team from Bremen crossed the finish line in second place, but a 15-minute penalty for original race winners Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) and Elias Seppänen (FIN/both Landgraf Motorsport) saw the outfit from the Hanseatic city promoted to winners one and a half hours after the race. Second place went to Alexander Schwarzer (D) and Alexander Fach (CH) in a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Fach Auto Tech. The Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 of Jonas Karklys (LIT) and Pablo Schumm (CH/both Liqui Moly Team Engstler by NordVPN) followed them home in third place. This was the best result of the season for both teams.

Race eight of this season’s ADAC GT Masters got off to a dramatic start at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Kalender drove into the rear of the Ferrari 296 GT3 of pole-sitter Jean-Luc D´Auria’s (CH) in turn one. The Swiss driver spun and rejoined the race at the back of the field. He then had to park his car up in front of the Emil Frey Racing garage during the pit stop. Mike David Ortmann (Ahrensfelde) benefitted from this incident and took the lead for Walkenhorst Motorsport in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Following a safety car phase while a car was being recovered, Ortmann was handed a penalty lap for his false start and consequently dropped back to eighth place. Back at the front, Kalender now led, followed by Köhler. They maintained those positions after the pit stops and crossed the finish line in the same order. However, Kalender was subsequently awarded a 15-second penalty for his manoeuvre against D´Auria at the start – victory went to Köhler.

As the race entered the closing stages, an exciting battle for victory in the ProAm class developed between the cars placed third to fifth in the overall standings. In the end, it was the Fach Auto Tech team that came out on top. “I am totally overwhelmed. After being unlucky and failing to finish yesterday, here we are today on the podium as overall runners-up. It feels fantastic,” said Alexander Schwarzer.

Benjamin Hites (CHL) and Tim Zimmermann came home fourth in their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Rounding out the top five were Denis Bulatov (Cologne) and Ortmann in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for Walkenhorst Motorsport. Seppänen and Kalender eventually had to settle for sixth place. David Schumacher (Salzburg) and Salman Owega (Cologne) from Haupt Racing Team were seventh in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, ahead of Jannes Fittje and Finn Wiebelhaus (Obertshausen/both Haupt Racing Team) in another Mercedes-AMG GT3 in eighth. The third Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 crossed the finish line in ninth place with Max Reis (Ramstein) and Kwanda Mokoena (ZAF/both Haupt Racing Team) at the wheel. Tenth place went to Simon Connor Primm (Großschirma) and Jonas Greif (Coswig) in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 run by the Paul Motorsport team.

Kalender and Seppänen continue to lead the Drivers championship with 159 points, ahead of Oosten and Köhler on 147. The trophy in the “Road to DTM” was won by Seppänen, who leads the competition with 182 points. The title race enters the next round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria from 27th to 29th September. The drivers will contest races nine and ten of the season at the circuit in the Styria region.