Baumann and Klingmann keep title hopes alive in BMW one-two

• Sachsenring winners Dominik Baumann and Jens Klingmann move up to second in the drivers championship
• Claudia Hürtgen and Uwe Alzen make it a BMW one-two finish
• Audi man Andreas Weishaupt wins in Gentlemen class

Hohenstein-Ernstthal: Dominik Baumann (22, AUT) and Jens Klingmann (25, DEU) sharing the cockpit of a BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert Z4 GT3 boosted their ADAC GT Masters title aspirations in a commanding one-two victory for BMW at the Sachsenring. The BMW duo won by a tight 0.126-second margin ahead of BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert team-mates Claudia Hürtgen (43, DEU) and Uwe Alzen (48, DEU). This third victory of the 2015 campaign takes Baumann and Klingmann up into second place in the standings. With five races left before the end of the season, they are now the closest pursuers behind the leading pair of Luca Ludwig (26, DEU) and Sebastian Asch (29, DEU) who finished fifth in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. “This victory has certainly advanced our cause in the title race,” said a delighted Klingmann. “If we’re not able to come first here, then we’re not able to anywhere. For us, the Sachsenring is the best track on the calendar, so we have to take maximum points here.” Also putting in a strong performance were the Callaway Competition Corvette pairing of Andreas Wirth (30, DEU) and Daniel Keilwitz (26, DEU) who managed a third-place finish after starting way back on the grid in 15th.

BMWs claim imperious double victory

The BMW one-two victory at the Sachsenring was never in any danger. Starting from pole, Hürtgen immediately pulled out a gap ahead of team-mate Baumann, which had increased to 7.2 seconds going into the mandatory pit stop window. A safety car deployment then neutralised the gap after Rahel Frey (29, AUT) in the third-placed YACO Racing Audi R8 spun off track and Maximilian Buhk (22, DEU) had to park up his Bentley Team HTP Continental due to a technical defect. After the driver changeover and restart, the BMW double lead with Alzen ahead of Klingmann continued as before. Three laps before the race end, Klingmann prevailed in the internal team duel against Alzen to post a third victory of the season.

Klingmann: “Immediately after the pit stop, I was able to make up ground on Uwe Alzen. He was weaker on the brakes, so I was able to get alongside him. Uwe played fair during the overtaking manoeuvre.”

Commenting on his seventh ADAC GT Masters career victory, Baumann said: “Claudia was really flying in the first half of the race; her car was so good that I focused on hanging onto second place and giving Jens a good car for the second stint.”

Corvette pair Wirth and Keilwitz stage impressive charge up field

Wirth and Keilwitz in their Corvette laid on a great display of overtaking. Starting from P15, Wirth worked his way forward through the field. After the safety car period and the driver changeover halfway through the race, Keilwitz improved from eleventh to fourth place within the space of eight laps and ultimately inherited third place when the kfzteile24 MS Racing Audi R8 of Edward Sandström (36, SWE) skidded off into the gravel. Making their contribution to a strong team performance by Callaway Competition were fourth-placed Diego Alessi (43, ITA) and Patrick Assenheimer (23, DEU). Assenheimer watched team-mate Keilwitz’s back in the second half of the race, holding off the challenge from the Team Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Ludwig and Asch as well as the HP Racing SLS AMG of Hari Proczyk (39, AUT) and Andreas Simonsen (25, SWE).

Nissan duo Jöst and Scholze new joint Gentlemen leaders

Andreas Weishaupt (42, DEU) and Christer Jöns (28, DEU) of C.Abt Racing were the best placed of the Audis in seventh, at the same time celebrating their third win of the season in the Gentlemen class. On his ADAC GT Masters comeback, Albert von Thurn und Taxis (32, DEU) together with Reiter Engineering co-driver Tomas Enge (38, CZ) finished eighth in the Lamborghini Gallardo. Ninth place went to Martin Ragginger (27, AUT) and Klaus Bachler (24, AUT) in the GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3, a result which meant that Bachler lost second place in the championship to race winners Klingmann and Baumann. Florian Scholze (42, DEU) and Dominik Jöst (36, DEU) in an MRS GT-Racing Nissan GT-R claimed one championship point for tenth and also took the lead in the Gentlemen standings.

Qualifying for Race 2 on Sunday at 08:00

The second of the two ADAC GT Masters races at the Sachsenring will be broadcast live by SPORT1 on Sunday, with coverage commencing at 13:00 CEST. The starting grid for Race 2 will be decided in qualifying which starts at 08:00 on Sunday.