BMW duo Klingmann and Baumann triumph in ADAC GT Masters at Spa

• BMW celebrate first ADAC GT Masters win of the season at Spa-Francorchamps
• Fifth different winner in the fifth race of 2015
• Victory for Corvette driver Lips in the Gentlemen class

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium: Intense wheel-to-wheel action, exciting slipstream duels and the
fifth winner in as many races. On the third weekend of the 2015 ADAC GT Masters at
Spa-Francorchamps, Jens Klingmann (24, GER) and Dominik Baumann (22, A) of BMW Sports
Trophy Team Schubert picked up their first winners’ trophy of the season. Current championship
leaders Sebastian Asch (29, GER) and Luca Ludwig (26, GER) in the Team Zakspeed Mercedes-
Benz SLS AMG crossed the finish line 7.4 seconds behind to take second place. Luca Stolz (19,
GER) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (33, NL) of Bentley Team HTP battled their way through to third
place and a second ADAC GT Masters podium for a Bentley Continental. “There were some great
scraps today, but we allowed ourselves plenty of space on the track,” said Klingmann after
winning his fifth career race. “If you can fight hard but fair – as it should be in GT racing – and
come away with the win, it’s incredible fun.”

Klingmann thrills crowd at start

An exciting five-way battle between Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW, Audi and Bentley marked
the period immediately after the start. Asch, who was on pole in the Mercedes-Benz, led from
Martin Ragginger (27, A) in the GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche, while Klingmann
to their rear prepared to attack in the BMW. The BMW driver did not get off the line well,
dropping down to fifth place. Klingmann first overtook Stefan Wackerbauer (19, GER) in the
C.Abt Racing Audi, who subsequently retired after a spin into the barriers, thereby causing a
brief safety car period, before Klingmann overtook both Asch and Ragginger to go into the lead.

Once out in front, there was no stopping Klingmann. He had extended his lead to 8.8 seconds by
the time he handed over the car to Baumann. After the pit stop, the Austrian had a cushion of as
much as 11.1 seconds to comfortably clinch his fifth ADAC GT Masters race victory.

Klingmann: “It was important for us to at least finish this time after a difficult start to the
season, including a double retirement last time out. I could see on the first lap that our car was
very strong. I had to use that to my advantage and went right to the front of the field.”

“I had to really watch the front tyres in the closing stages,” added Baumann, “So it was good
that Jens had already pulled out a decent lead in the first stint, otherwise things could have got
tricky once again in the final stages. With a pairing as strong as ours, we really should have
been much nearer the front in the first few races, but things are now looking up.”

Bentley pair fight for podium

Asch and Ludwig extended their lead in the standings even further with second place in the
Mercedes-Benz, making it four podium finishes in five races. The Bentley duo of Stolz and
Bleekemolen benefited on the way to their podium from a penalty against the Porsche of Martin
Ragginger and Klaus Bachler (23, A). Ragginger was handed a five-second penalty for running wide and going off track. The Porsche duo had clawed their way up into fourth by the end of the
race.

Claudia Hürtgen (43, GER) and Uwe Alzen (47, GER) came fifth in the BMW Sports Trophy Team
Schubert BMW Z4 GT3. The two kfzteile24 MS Racing Audi R8s driven by Daniel Dobitsch (31,
A) and Edward Sandström (36, S) and by Florian Stoll (33, GER) and Marc Basseng (36, GER)
finished sixth and eight respectively. They were involved in an exciting battle for position in the
second stint of the race with the HP Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Hari Proczyk (39,
A) and Bernd Schneider (50, GER) who managed to split the two Audis and finish seventh.

Patrick Assenheimer (23, GER) and Diego Alessi (43, I) of Callaway Competition and the RWT
Racing Team pairing of Remo Lips (32, CH) and Sven Barth (34, GER) claimed the remaining
Top Ten positions for Corvette. Lips thus won the Gentlemen stakes for the second time this
season. Andreas Weishaupt (42, GER) in a C.Abt Racing Audi finished as runner-up in the class
ahead of series newcomer Samuel Sladecka (21, SVK) in the Senkyr Motorsport BMW Z4.

The Bentley HTP pair of Clemens Schmid (24, A) and Fabian Hamprecht (19, GER) took the
chequered flag in sixth place but were subsequently handed a 30-second penalty and demoted
to 14th after Hamprecht collided with the YACO Racing Audi R8 of Rahel Frey (29, CH) in the
final turn.

Schneider and Alzen on front row for Sunday’s race

More high-octane thrills are guaranteed on Sunday when Race 2 gets underway at midday local
time (live coverage on SPORT1 commencing at 11:45 CEST plus live streaming on adac.de/gtmasters).
The two slots on the front row have been booked by touring car greats Bernd
Schneider in a Mercedes-Benz and Uwe Alzen in a BMW. Breathing down their necks are
Saturday’s winner Dominik Baumann in a BMW and championship leader Ludwig in his
Mercedes.