Corvette duo Alessi & Keilwitz maintain winning streak at Lausitzring

• Corvette partnership wins third race in a row to take championship lead
• Remo Lips claims victory in Gentlemen class
• Five different marques in Top Five

Diego Alessi (41) and Daniel Keilwitz (24) continued their winning streak in the ADAC GT
Masters at the Lausitzring. This third win in a row (and their fourth of the season) has taken the
Callaway Competition duo to the top of the ADAC GT Masters standings. Claudia Hürtgen (41)
and Dominik Baumann (20) in a PIXUM Team Schubert BMW had to content themselves with
the runner-up spot after a thrilling duel with the winning Corvette. Robert Renauer (28) and
Martin Ragginger (25) in their Tonino by Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 finished third.
“We’re gradually getting used to the idea of winning in the ADAC GT Masters,” said a jubilant
Alessi on the podium. Alessi and Keilwitz are only the second driver partnership in the history of
the ADAC GT Masters to notch up three wins in a row.

Scrap between Rast and Farnbacher curtails start
Events at the start of the race were dominated by the clash between pole-sitter Mario
Farnbacher (21) in a Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911 and René Rast (26) in a Prosperia C Abt
Audi R8. Rast got off to a better start than Farnbacher, seizing the lead ahead of the first corner.
Farnbacher followed through in the Audi’s slipstream, looking for a chance to strike back. But
the counterattack at the end of the start-finish straight ended disastrously as the Porsche drove
over a high kerb and wrecked its underbody. With debris from the Farnbacher Porsche wedged
into the kerb, the safety car was deployed. As considerable work was needed to return the edge
of the track to a safe condition, the stewards decided to bring out the red flags and halt the
race.

After a 20-minute interruption, Rast led out at the restart but then had to take a drive-through
penalty for having overtaken the safety car before the race was stopped. As a result of this
penalty, Rast and team-mate Christopher Mies (24) finished well back in P14 and outside the
points. The main beneficiary was Daniel Keilwitz who now inherited the lead in his Corvette. But
Keilwitz had a real job on his hands to bring home the silverware as the second-placed BMW
driven by Baumann put the Corvette under continual pressure, getting up alongside on a couple
of occasions. But Keilwitz nonetheless prevailed in a tough battle to cross the line 0.776
seconds ahead of the BMW.

“In the second half of the race, the brakes on our Corvette were starting to fade,” said Keilwitz.
“Every time I braked, the BMW was getting closer, so I had to concentrate on accelerating well
out of the corner. The battle with the BMW was very hard, but it was a fair one.”

Alessi: “The race today was very special. We only won because we were able to benefit from the
misfortune of our rivals and because we had a perfect pit stop which moved us up from fifth to
second. We were very lucky, because it was clear that the BMW was significantly faster than us
on the last couple of laps.”

Renauer and Ragginger finished the race in third place after setting a consistently fast pace.
Frank Kechele (26) and Dominik Schwager (36) in the Lambda Performance Ford GT finished
fourth, missing out on a podium by only 0. 5 seconds. Christer Jöns (26) and former DTM and
Formula 1 driver Markus Winkelhock (32) came fifth in their Prosperia C Abt Audi R8 ahead of
the two Dutchmen Simon Knap (24) and Jeroen den Boer (25) in the DB Motorsport BMW Z4.
Maximilian Götz (27) and Maximilian Buhk (20) in a Polarweiss Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
finished seventh, having gone into the race as championship leaders. Ex-DTM driver Rahel Frey
(27) from Switzerland and Christopher Haase (25) in a Prosperia C Abt Audi R8 came home in
eighth position.

Win also for Corvette in Gentlemen stakes
It was a double victory for the American sports car in Race 1 at the Lausitzring as Swiss amateur
Remo Lips (31), ably assisted by ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Lennart Marioneck (24) from
Bamberg, claimed his second win of the season in the Gentlemen classification. Current
championship leader René Bourdeaux (38) came second in his Tonino by Herberth Motorsport
Porsche 911, thereby extending his lead over closest pursuer Christina Nielsen (21) from
Denmark driving a Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911.

Porsche and BMW share front row on Sunday
In the second of the two races this weekend, Martin Ragginger’s Porsche lines up in pole
position alongside the BMW of fellow Austrian Dominik Baumann. On Row 2 are Dominik
Schwager in a Ford GT and Nick Tandy (26) from England in a Farnbacher Racing Porsche.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s winner Keilwitz starts from relatively far back on the grid in P14.

Result of Race 1 (11/16):
1. Diego Alessi & Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition, Corvette Z06.R GT3), 30 laps
2. Claudia Hürtgen & Dominik Baumann (PIXUM Team Schubert, BMW Z4 GT3), +0.776 sec
3. Robert Renauer & Martin Ragginger (Tonino by Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R),
+1.423 sec
4. Frank Kechele & Dominik Schwager (Lambda Performance, Ford GT), +1.966 sec
5. Christer Jöns & Markus Winkelhock (Prosperia C Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra), +3.727 sec