Franco-German friendship: ADAC GT Masters champions Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet

• Renauer and Jaminet claim maiden Super Sports Car League title
• No driver pairing had more Top Ten finishes in the season
• First ADAC GT Masters title for Porsche since 2008

Hockenheim: Robert Renauer (33, GER) and Mathieu Jaminet (23, FRA, both Precote Herberth Motorsport) are the latest names to join the list of ADAC GT Masters champions. In a dramatic grand finale to the 2018 season at Hockenheim, the Porsche drivers secured their first Super Sports Car League title. "It's the biggest success in the history of our team," said team boss Alfred Renauer after Sunday's race. "It's not really sunk in yet that we actually did it. That final race with all its ups and downs reflected our entire season. In the end, though, we did just enough, and we are simply delighted."

At the end of the seventh and final race weekend of the season, victory had gone to the most consistent driver pairing of the year. With the title win, a ten-year drought for Porsche in the ADAC GT Masters has come to an end: Renauer and Jaminet are the first drivers to have won the championship for the Swabian manufacturer since Tim Bergmeister in 2008. This triumph for the German-French duo also brings to the fore the smallest team in the ADAC GT Masters line-up. "Apart from my brother, we have only two other full-time employees," says Robert Renauer who, together with his twin brother Alfred, has been managing Herberth Motorsport since the summer of 2012. Alfred also races, but his main focus is on the role of team manager in the ADAC GT Masters: "All our employees are part of the family. Whether driver, mechanic or engineer, everyone makes a contribution. They have worked so hard all year and earned this success."

Unlike most of the other teams in the series, the Bavarian outfit has fielded only one car. "It was certainly to our advantage that we're now into our third year with this car, so we now know it intimately," adds Robert. "We've driven this car in so many races that we know what changes we have to make to get a good result." The success of Herberth Motorsport extends beyond the ADAC GT Masters: they also service the 911s used by other teams. The team regularly performs well in endurance racing, generally with both brothers in the cockpit: since 2015, they have enjoyed ten wins in 12-hour or 24-hour races.

Renauer and Jaminet made a bright start to their first ADAC GT Masters season together, taking over at the top of the table at the end of the visit to Most on the basis of two P3 finishes. Although they had to surrender the lead shortly thereafter, they were always within striking distance of the top. At Zandvoort, they emphasised their title ambitions with a victory from pole position. "That success was a highlight of the campaign," says Jaminet. "We weren't expecting to win there, because we had an accident in free practice and the track is not so good for the Porsche." On the penultimate weekend of the season at the Sachsenring, Renauer and Jaminet moved back to the top and arrived at Hockenheim with a four-point lead. They made sure of the outcome on Sunday with a charge through the field from tenth to fifth place. "What has set us apart from the rest this year is our consistency," says Renauer. "It was the key to winning the title." With eleven finishes in the Top Ten, no other driver pairing has scored on as regular a basis as Renauer and Jaminet; in addition to the victory at Zandvoort they made three other podium appearances.

Robert Renauer started his career together with twin brother Alfred in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. When Robert first drove in the ADAC GT Masters (2008 - 2010), it was mainly in Lamborghinis and Mercedes. For the past six years, however, he has exclusively driven the Porsche 911 for Herberth Motorsport, the team founded by his father Alfred Herberth. When their father was killed in an accident in the summer of 2012, the Renauer brothers took over at the helm. Robert Renauer's previous greatest success in the ADAC GT Masters came in the 2013 season when he finished as runner-up. But in the intervening years too, the contestant from Jedenhofen in Bavaria has had a consistent record in terms of Top Ten results and podiums. In 2016, Stuttgart sports car manufacturer recognised his achievements by naming him the world's best Porsche privateer.

Team-mate Jaminet also made a name for himself in the Carrera Cup after briefly flirting with Formula racing. When he came second in the 2015 French Carrera Cup, Porsche became aware of the young Frenchman, and they have been promoting his career ever since. The following year (2016), he dominated the series to such an extent that he accomplished something that no other driver has ever done before, namely winning every single race. In 2017, he made his debut in GT3 racing and celebrated a sensational debut in the ADAC GT Masters with pole position and victory at Oschersleben. Since the beginning of the 2018 campaign, he has been one half of a driver pairing with Robert Renauer - a combination that has been in perfect harmony from the start. "Mathieu is a very determined person and totally focused on motorsport," says Renauer. "That is an impressive quality, especially in one so young. He has settled in very well with us." Jaminet responds with his own words of praise: "This team is really like a family. One of the secrets of our success is that we have a lot of fun together on race weekends, although of course we also work very hard and in a professional manner."