The ADAC GT Masters in facts and figures: Highlights from first half of season

• Five different super sports car marques take wins in first eight races
• Championship leaders van der Linde/Rast secure points in every race for the Audi R8
• New records: Youngest pole-sitter and winner, fastest race

High-five: Cars from five different marques clinched wins in the first eight races of the season. Porsche 911, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Corvette have each taken two wins so far, while BMW Z4 and Audi R8 nosed ahead in one race each. The most successful drivers were Kelvin van der Linde (18, South Africa), René Rast (27, Germany / both Prosperia C Abt Racing), Maximilian Buhk (21, Germany), Maximilian Götz (28, Germany / both HTP Motorsport), Jaap van Lagen (37, Netherlands), Kévin Estre (25, France / both GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport), Daniel Keilwitz (24, Germany) and Oliver Gavin (41, Great Britain / both Callaway Competition), who all achieved two wins each.

Trophies: Super sports cars made by six different manufacturers finished on the podium in the first eight races. ‘ Half-time’ champions van der Linde/Rast (Audi R8) lifted six trophies between them. Audi drivers booked eight podium places to Porsche’ s six, collecting the highest number of trophies overall.

Consistency is ace in the pack: Championship leaders van der Linde/Rast are also the most consistent in the field. The two Audi drivers were the only ones to secure points in every race.

The youngest: Audi driver and ADAC GT Masters ‘half-time’ champion van der Linde set two new records within 16 hours at the season opener in Oschersleben. As the new season got under way, the 17-year-old South African became the youngest pole-sitter ever in the history of the series and finished as the youngest race winner the following day.

Best rookie: As championship leader, Van der Linde is also best newcomer in the ADAC GT Masters at the season mid-point, followed by van Lagen, who is ranked second in the standings and is likewise in his debut year in the Super Sports Car League.

International: 64 drivers from 14 countries contested the first eight ADAC GT Masters races of 2014. Drivers from Spain, Estonia, Israel and Australia joined the line-up for the first time.

Excitement: The lead changed 24 times in the eight ADAC GT Masters races staged to date.

Lead drivers hard at work: Keilwitz/Gavin led for the highest number of laps. The Corvette pair were in the lead for 78 laps which equates to 320km. Overall, drivers from 14 different teams secured P1 for at least one lap in the first eight races.

Pole position: Audi and Corvette drivers took the top spot on the grid three times each respectively, while Porsche and BMW secured one pole position each.

The quickest: Keilwitz und Gavin won the first race at the Red Bull Ring with the highest average speed attained so far in the ADAC GT Masters. The Corvette drivers achieved an average speed of 165.9km/h in Austria to win the fastest race ever in the history of the series. Keilwitz was 27 seconds quicker over the race distance at the Red Bull Ring this season, comfortably beating his record from the previous year.

Narrowest and greatest of margins: Buhk and Götz have won races both by the greatest and smallest of margins in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. At the season opener in Oschersleben, the Mercedes pair took the win in race 1 by just 0.307 seconds from the Audi R8 of van der Linde/Rast. Buhk/Götz achieved their second win of the season at the Lausitzring by finishing 13.841 seconds up on the Porsche 911 of Robert Renauer (29, Germany) and Norbert Siedler (31, Austria / both TONINO Team Herberth).

Seiler makes it 100: Toni Seiler (56, Switzerland / Callaway Competition is the first ever ADAC GT Masters driver to have contested 100 races. The Corvette driver lined up for the hundredth time in Oschersleben.

Mr Dominator: Herbert Handlos (31, Austria / TONINO Team Herberth) has ruled the roost in the Gentlemen standings so far this season. The Austrian series newcomer has taken six wins in class from eight races.

What’ s next for the second half of the season? The second half of the ADAC GT Masters season gets under way on the weekend of August 8th-10th at the Slovakia Ring which is not far from Bratislava, Slovakia’ s capital city. The Nürburgring (29th–31st August) is then next on the programme, followed by the ‘semi-finals’ at the Sachsenring (19th-21st September) and the ‘finals’ at the Hockenheimring from October 3rd to 5th.