ZANDVOORT, The Netherlands — Felix Hirsiger (28/CHE) and Finn Zulauf (21/Königstein im Taunus/both Liqui Moly Team Engstler Motorsport) won the second race at Zandvoort in their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2.
They finished 7.799 seconds ahead of the previous day’s winners, Tim Zimmermann (29/Langenargen) and Leyton Fourie (20/ZAF/both FK Performance Motorsport) in their BMW M4 GT3 Evo. Their teammates Storm Gjerdrum (16/NOR) and Fabio Rauer (19/Stolberg) completed the podium in the second BMW.
“That was a perfect race. We absolutely hadn’t expected the win, so it feels all the better,” said a delighted Zulauf. Teammate Hirsiger added: “It was incredibly difficult standing in the pits watching Finn, but he was so calm and collected and did a fantastic job. We got the maximum out of this weekend and now hope it continues the same way at the Lausitzring.”
With their second win of the season, the duo further extended their lead in the standings.
At the start, polesitter Kiano Blum (19/AUT/Haupt Racing Team) initially held the lead in his Ford Mustang GT3. Behind him, Fourie and his teammate Jan Duran (18/ESP) slotted into second and third place, respectively, while Hirsiger had to settle for fourth.
“At the start, it was important to take only calculated risks and stay close to the cars in front, in order to react to them with our strategy,” explained Hirsiger. After a safety car period, a three-way battle developed between Hirsiger, Duran, and Pavel Lefterov (28/BGR/Razoon – more than Racing) in the Porsche 911 GT3 R for third position, until Hirsiger pitted for a driver change.
“Our strategy worked even better than expected,” laughed Zulauf, who ultimately took the lead thanks to the early pit stop. “When I returned to the track, my engineer told me to drive in qualifying mode. The car was running really well and Felix left me with tires in superb condition, otherwise this victory would not have been possible.”
The loser of the pit stops was the Ford Mustang GT3, which had been leading up to that point and which Niklas Kalus (20/Duisburg/Haupt Racing Team) had taken over from Blum. He not only rejoined the track in fifth place, but was immediately overtaken by Fabio Rauer’s (19/Stolberg/FK Performance Motorsport) BMW in a duel that lasted several corners.
Rauer used the momentum and shortly afterwards also overtook Mark Kastelic’s (18/SLO/Razoon – more than Racing) Porsche and his teammate Joseph Ellerine (22/ZAF).
An interruption of the race following an incident did not change the top three, however, Ellerine dropped from fourth place to the back of the field due to a mistake at the restart.
Thus, FK Performance Motorsport retained second and third place. Fourie/Zimmermann, with their second-place finish following their victory the previous day, also took second place in the championship.
“We copied Zandvoort from last year, only changing the order of the results. Second place was the maximum for us with the success ballast after yesterday’s win,” explained Fourie, who also won the “Road to DTM” classification at Zandvoort.
“Tire degradation is quite challenging here anyway, and with more weight it doesn’t get any easier. I’m very happy with the result and would like to thank the team for the great car. The season started somewhat difficult, but we knew we would be strong here and made the most of it.”
For Rauer and Storm Gjerdrum, who had worked their way up from ninth on the grid to third place, it was the first podium finish of their ADAC GT Masters careers.
“I’m very happy. It was a good, but very eventful race,” beamed rookie Rauer. “So much happened during Storm’s stint. After the pit stop, the car was fantastic again. When the Porsche came out of the pits, I immediately seized the moment, and it worked. I had to react quickly, and that was the right decision; otherwise, it could have been really close to the podium at the end.”
Kastelic/Lefterov ultimately finished fourth, ahead of their teammates Leo Pichler (24/AUT)/Colin Bönighausen (21/Isernhagen/both Razoon – more than Racing) in the second Porsche 911 GT3 R. Sixth place went to polesitters Blum/Kalus in the best-placed Ford Mustang GT3, ahead of John Paul Southern (24/USA)/Jonas Karklys (36/LIT/both Liqui Moly Team Engstler Motorsport) in the Lamborghini.
Jamie Day (20/GBR)/Baudouin Detout (25/Frau/both Comtoyou Racing) secured eighth place in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, while twins Sandro and Juliano Holzem (21/Polch/both Schubert Motorsport) finished ninth in the BMW. The top 10 was completed by Tim Hütter (19/AUT)/Ethan Brown (21/SGP/both Liqui Moly Team Engstler Motorsport) in the third Lamborghini.
