Mies and Rast cruise to victory in Audi at Sachsenring

• Christopher Mies and René Rast celebrate second win of season
• Thrilling tussle between Porsche and BMW for second podium spot
• René Bourdeaux wins in Gentlemen classification

The Prosperia C. Abt Racing partnership of Christopher Mies (24) and René Rast (26) dominated Saturday’s race in the ADAC GT Masters at the Sachsenring. The Audi duo put in a faultless performance to become the first driver pairing to claim two victories in the current season. Meanwhile, the battle for second place raged from the first to the very last lap. Christian Engelhart (26) and Frenchman Nicolas Armindo (31) in their Geyer & Weinig EDV - Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 ultimately came home just ahead of the PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4 driven by Max Sandritter (24) and Jens Klingmann (22). “Winning in the ADAC GT Masters is never easy, but let’s say that today’s race was at the easier end of the scale,” said a jubilant Christopher Mies after notching up the sixth victory of his ADAC GT Masters career.

Key facts, Sachsenring, Race 1

Length of track: 3,645 metres
Weather: 26°C, sunny
Pole position for Race 1: Christopher Mies (Prosperia C. Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra) 01:21.689 mins
Winner of Race 1: Christopher Mies / René Rast (Prosperia C. Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra)
Fastest race lap: Jeroen den Boer (DB Motorsport, BMW Z4 GT3), 01:21.979 mins

Mies wins opening duel from pole position

The only real challenge to Christopher Mies’s lead came right at the start. Going into the first turn, Christian Engelhart in the Porsche, starting from second place on the grid, went wheel-to-wheel with the pole-setter’s Audi, but Mies had the better inside line and held on to the lead. For the duration of the race, nobody could find a way past the red-and-white Audi. At the compulsory pit stop, Mies handed over a 6.7-second lead to team-mate René Rast. In the second half of the race at the Sachsenring, Rast continued from where Mies had left off, securing a superb sixth victory for Audi in the ADAC GT Masters by a full 7.8 seconds. “I didn’t get away so well at the start,” said Mies. “Although both Engelhart in his Porsche and I were late on the brakes, it turned out OK and I was able to retain the lead.” Despite the comfortable margin, Rast did not let up in the second half of the race right until the finish: “I had my foot down right until the end just to be sure of victory.”

There was a real scrap for second place, as little separated Christian Engelhart and Nicolas Armindo and the pairing of Max Sandritter and Jens Klingmann from start to finish. Yet neither Sandritter nor Klingmann was able to mount the decisive attack on the Porsche. Armindo withstood the pressure of the pursuing Klingmann, driving flawlessly to cross the line 0.3 seconds ahead of the BMW. Fourth place went to Robert Renauer (28) and Martin Ragginger (25) of Tonino powered by Herberth Motorsport as they finished in front of the fastest Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 driven by defending champion Maximilian Götz (27) and Polarweiss Racing team-mate Maximilian Buhk (20).

First points for defending champions MS RACING

The drivers of the two MS RACING Audi R8s, defending champions in the team standings, were happy to secure their first points at the Sachsenring. With Daniel Dobitsch (28, Austria) and Aditya Patel (24, India) coming sixth and last year’s champion Sebastian Asch (27) and Florian Stoll (31) taking seventh, MS RACING enjoyed its best result so far this season, registering their first championship points of the campaign in the process.

THE BOSS YACO Racing team will also have been pleased to secure points on their home circuit. The Plauen-based team took tenth place in the Audi R8 driven by local favourite Philip Geipel (26) and Christian Mamerow (28). Brothers Tobias (31) and Michael (28) Schulze in the Nissan GT-R of Weißenfels-based Schulze Motorsport were 16th.

René Bourdeaux wins in Gentlemen classification

The Gentlemen classification saw a one-two victory for Porsche in Race 1. René Bourdeaux (38) from Munich with the support of Tonino powered by Herberth Motorsport co-driver Alfred Renauer (28) took his third winner’s trophy of the season in the Gentlemen stakes. Fellow Porsche driver Christina Nielsen (21, Denmark, Farnbacher Racing), who currently leads the Gentlemen standings, finished as runner-up. In third position was two-time amateur champion Toni Seiler (55) from Switzerland in his Callaway Competition Corvette.
BMW duo of Klingmann and Sandritter to start from pole position on Sunday

In Race 2 of the ADAC GT Masters double bill at the Sachsenring on Sunday (live coverage on kabel eins commences at 12 noon), Mies and Rast are well placed to pick up their second trophy of the weekend. The winners of the first race will be starting from the front row alongside pole-setter Klingmann in his BMW. The second row has been booked by Austrian driver Dominik Baumann (20) in a PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4 and Christopher Haase (25) from Kulmbach in another Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audi R8.