ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring: High speed in the Alps

• Third race weekend of the 2018 ADAC GT Masters
• Super Sports Car League to be hosted by the fastest track on the itinerary
• Tense start to the campaign: Four races and four different winners so far

Munich: The curtain is about to go up on Round 3 of the 2018 ADAC GT Masters. The Super Sports Car League continues this weekend (8th - 10th June) at the Red Bull Ring with a second foreign fixture in a row. The Porsche pairing of Robert Renauer (33, GER) and Mathieu Jaminet (23, FRA, both Precote Herberth Motorsport) will have the other title aspirants breathing down their necks on the fastest track of the year. After the first four races produced four different winners, the 36 GT3 sports cars from eight brands in the starting line-up promise to deliver further exciting action in the Alps. The two races will be broadcast live and in full length by SPORT1 on Saturday and Sunday starting at 13:00 CEST. Alternatively, they can be watched online via the livestream on sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.

The race weekend in Austria is one of the most popular fixtures on the calendar. The Red Bull Ring is not only unique because of its Alpine backdrop but also for being the fastest circuit on the ADAC GT Masters itinerary. In 2017, the Lamborghini duo of Rolf Ineichen (40, CH) and Christian Engelhart (31, GER, both GRT Grasser Racing Team) won the most high-speed race in the history of the series, clocking an average 170.9kph.

Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet travel to Austria as championship leaders without actually having won a race during the current campaign. However, two third places at Most in the Czech Republic in late April were enough to take them to the top of the standings. "Of course, it's great to be coming to the Red Bull Ring as the leaders," said Renauer. "But we also know that we have had only two race weekends so far and that there are quite a few still to go. We are just concentrating on getting through the upcoming races as successfully as we did the first two." The Alpine circuit is Renauer's favourite on the race calendar, but he is hesitant about making any predictions for the forthcoming weekend: "The track is fun to drive and is set in a wonderful location, which always makes it feel like a sort of holiday. It's hard to make forecasts. We've so far been scoring points on a consistent basis, so I'm hoping we can build on that. I don't necessarily see ourselves as contenders for the win, so our objective is to score as many points as we can and leave the Red Bull Ring still as leaders. We definitely intend to be somewhere near the front, maybe even on the podium again."

After their Sunday win at Most, the Mercedes-AMG pairing of Markus Pommer (27, GER) and Maximilian Götz (32, GER, both Mann-Filter Team HTP) will be looking to repeat that result at Spielberg, as indeed will be the other previous race winners. They include Austria's Max Hofer (18) and partner Philip Ellis (25, GB) in the Audi R8 LMS of Phoenix Racing and the rival Audi drivers of BWT Mücke Motorsport Jeffrey Schmidt (24, CH) and Stefan Mücke (36, GER). As in the season opener, Mücke will have the services of DTM star Jamie Green (35, GB). Another pairing who have already graced the top rung of the podium during the current campaign are Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti (28, ITA), who now lives in Vienna, and team-mate Andrea Caldarelli (28, ITA). They drive a Huracán GT3 for ORANGE1 by GRT Grasser, a team based in Knittelfeld quite close to the Red Bull Ring.

Also in upbeat mood ahead of the weekend is Corvette man Daniel Keilwitz (28, GER). He has celebrated more ADAC GT Masters victories on this 4.32km track than any other driver. His most recent triumph on the Alpine circuit came in the Saturday race last year when he was sharing a cockpit with the eventual title winner Jules Gounon (23, FRA). Together with his new team-mate Marvin Kirchhöfer (24, GER), Keilwitz registered two second-place finishes in the Czech Republic, which was enough to take them up to third in the championship table. In Austria, the Callaway Competition drivers will be aiming to record their first victory of the season.

Last year's Le Mans winner and FIA WEC champion Timo Bernhard (37, GER) also wants to make his mark at the weekend. The Porsche works driver, who has teamed up with Kévin Estre (29, FRA) at the wheel of a 911 GT3 R for his own outfit, KÜS Team75 Bernhard, is contesting his first season as an actual driver in the Super Sports Car League. "At the Red Bull Ring, we definitely want to finish in the points and maybe even further forward than that," says Bernhard.

In addition to Max Hofer, there are three more Austrians for whom the Red Bull Ring constitutes a home race - Porsche driver Klaus Bachler (26, KÜS Team75 Bernhard), Christopher Zöchling (30, MRS GT-Racing) in a BMW M6 GT3 and Mercedes-AMG driver Clemens Schmid (27, AutoArenA Motorsport). In the case of HB Racing from Upper Austria, there is a late change of driver, as regular starter Dominik Schwager (41, GER) is out through injury and is replaced by Alfred Renauer (33, GER). He teams up with Luca Ludwig (29, GER) in the HB Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. Renauer played an important role in the development of the team and has been a good friend of the boss and crew ever since. This creates an anomalous situation, as the Bavarian is actually team principal of Precote Herberth Motorsport. With his engagement as a driver for another team, he will temporarily step down from this position for the weekend.

In addition to the ADAC GT Masters, Spielberg will also be hosting the up-and-coming talents of ADAC Formula 4, the ADAC TCR Germany with its spectacular touring cars, the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland and the Renault Clio Cup Central Europe. But off the track too, there will be plenty of entertaining activities for the fans and the whole family. These will include the pit walk on Saturday (10:15 - 10:45) and on Sunday (10:35 - 11:15 clock) during which spectators can get autographs signed and take a close look behind the scenes of the Super Sports Car League. There will also be a Meet the Drivers session on the Bull's Lane Terrace on Saturday between 15:00 and 15:30.