Triumph for Audi’s Rast and van der Linde at Oschersleben

• Audi duo convert pole position to victory
• Kelvin van der Linde youngest ever ADAC GT Masters race winner
• Herbert Handlos scores debut win in Gentlemen class

Pole position, victory and the fastest race lap: South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde (17) and René
Rast (27) exploited their pole position to maximum effect in the second race of the ADAC GT
Masters weekend at the etropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The two Prosperia C Abt Audi
drivers dominated Sunday’s race to come home 2.4 seconds ahead of the GW IT Racing Team
// Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 driven by Christian Engelhart (27) and Dutchman Jaap van
Lagen (37). “We have an excellent package in the shape of our Audi R8,” said a jubilant René
Rast. “We also saved a complete set of fresh tyres for the race, which served us in good stead.”
Claudia Hürtgen (42) and Austria’s Dominik Baumann (21) finished the home race for
Oschersleben-based PIXUM Team Schubert in third place.

Race distance curtailed after crash going into Turn 1

Sunday’s race got off to a horrifying start with a pile-up ahead of the first corner which
immediately brought out the red flags. All seven drivers involved emerged relatively unscathed.
After a 30-minute delay, the race was restarted but over a reduced distance, with the time now
limited to 48 minutes. René Rast, still in pole position, led off strongly; the pursuing pair of
Dominik Baumann in a BMW and Jaap van Lagen in a Porsche were preoccupied with a private
battle for second position. Van Lagen prevailed but was unable to pose any sort of threat to race
leader Rast. At the mandatory pit stop, Rast handed over to co-driver van der Linde with a twosecond
cushion, and the youngster then brought the car home safely ahead of Engelhart and
Hürtgen. The debut performance by the 17-year-old South African could hardly have been more
impressive: he not only became the youngest ever race winner in the series but also claimed
one of the two pole positions in his own right.

“I found the first half hour of the race quite nerve-wracking and was a bit concerned when I took
over as race leader, as I didn’t know if I could hang on to P1 after the pit stop,” confessed van
der Linde. “But I then found myself further in front and just focused on finishing the race and
managing the lead.”

“Kelvin drove a fantastic race, didn’t make any mistakes and withstood massive pressure from
the opposition,” said an admiring Rast. “Apart from that frightening incident at the start, it was a
relatively straightforward race. I opened up a gap on the Porsche but never quite managed to
shake him off.”

Renauer and Siedler with another strong showing

Robert Renauer (29) and Norbert Siedler (31, Austria) in a TONINO Team Herberth Porsche 911
charged up the field on Sunday from last place on the grid, battling their way up into fourth
place at the finish. Renauer was at the wheel for the second stint and even managed to
overtake team-mate Herbert Handlos (31) just before the chequered flag. Handlos came over
the line to secure fifth place along with Alfred Renauer (29), at the same time winning the
Gentlemen class. Sixth position went to the Callaway Competition Corvette driven by reigning
ADAC GT Masters champion Diego Alessi (42, Italy) and Patrick Assenheimer (21).

Heinz-Harald Frentzen (46) and Luca Stolz (18) were pleased to have secured their first points
for the H.T.P. Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. The ex-Formula 1 vice world champion and
the promising junior brought home the SLS AMG in seventh place on Sunday. After winning
Race 1 the day before, Frentzen’s H.T.P. team-mates Maximilian Buhk (21) and Maximilian Götz
(28) suffered bad luck on Sunday when they got caught up in the collision at the start. Frentzen:
“As things stand currently, we still cannot match the pace of the leading group, so we drove a
very defensive race, trying to maintain our position. That earned us some points today and now
we’ll have to make sure that we do even better next time.”

Luca Ludwig (25) and Israel’s Alon Day (22) finished eighth in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG fielded
by new entrants BKK MOBIL OIL Zakspeed to claim their first points of the season. Former DTM
star Rahel Frey (28) and Philip Geipel (27) in a YACO Racing Audi R8 crossed the line in ninth
position ahead of the Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911 driven by Australia’s Nathan Morcom (22)
and Mario Farnbacher (21).

Triple success for Porsche in Gentlemen classification

Herbert Handlos achieved an impressive victory in the Gentlemen class on his first weekend in
the ADAC GT Masters. Alfred Renauer prepared the way for the Austrian to take a comfortable
class win ahead of TONINO Team Herberth’s Dominic Jöst (35) and Florian Scholze (40) and GW
IT Racing Team // Schütz Motorsport’s Wolf Nathan (45, Netherlands) and Anton Wossos (48,
Greece).

The top two in Saturday’s Gentlemen standings, Switzerland’s Toni Seiler (56) in a Callaway
Competition Corvette and fellow countryman Marc A Hayek (43) in a Blancpain Racing
Lamborghini, were out of luck in Race 2. Seiler’s teammate Jeroen Bleekemolen (32,
Netherlands) was involved in the accident at the start, and the Lamborghini retired after the first
lap with alternator failure.

Result: Race 2

1. Kelvin van der Linde / René Rast (Prosperia C Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra), 32 laps
2. Christian Engelhart / Jaap van Lagen (GW IT Racing Team // Schütz Motorsport, Porsche 911
GT3 R), +2.491 sec
3. Claudia Hürtgen / Dominik Baumann (PIXUM Team Schubert, BMW Z4 GT3), +3.151 sec
4. Robert Renauer / Norbert Siedler (TONINO Team Herberth, Porsche 911 GT3 R), +38.399 sec
5. Herbert Handlos / Alfred Renauer (TONINO Team Herberth, Porsche 911 GT3 R), +38.794 sec
6. Patrick Assenheimer / Diego Alessi (Callaway Competition, Corvette Z06.R GT3), +39.428 sec
7. Luca Stolz / Heinz-Harald Frentzen (HTP Motorsport, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3), +40.008
sec
8. Luca Ludwig / Alon Day (Prosperia C Abt Racing, Audi R8 LMS ultra), +44.670 sec