NURBURG, Germany — With the perfect tactics and the right tire strategy, last year’s champion Salman Owega and David Schumacher (Salzburg/both Haupt Racing Team) celebrated their first win of the season at the Nürburgring.
For the 22-year-old Schumacher, it was the first triumph of the season in the ADAC GT Masters. In a Mercedes-AMG duel, they ultimately held their own against the current leaders of the table Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) and Elias Sepännen (FIN/both Landgraf Motorsport), who came in second.
“After I took the lead in the second stint, I was able to deliver consistently fast laps and pull away from the field. It’s great that we’re finally at the top of the podium,” said Schumacher, describing his race.
“The knot has finally been broken,” teammate Owega said. “My engineer pushed me really hard on the radio, which gave me extra motivation. I am very happy that the hard work is finally paying off.”
The first endurance race of the ADAC GT Masters debuted on the 3.629-kilometer sprint course of the Nürburgring. The fifth championship race was held for the first time over an 80-minute race distance and included two mandatory pit stops.
The numerous spectators in the stands at the ADAC Truck Grand Prix witnessed a successful start by polesitter Tim Zimmermann (Langenargen/Grasser Racing Team), who immediately gained a few car lengths of lead over second-placed Finn Wiebelhaus (Obertshausen/Haupt Racing Team).
But after just one lap, a safety car phase wiped out the lead. At the restart, however, the Lamborghini driver did not let anything go wrong and continued his escape to the front. Since the teams operated with different tire strategies, there were some shifts in the field after the first pit stop.
When Zimmermann handed over to his teammate Benjamin Hites, it initially looked as if he would be able to keep the lead. However, Schumacher forced the Chilean into a mistake a short time later and overtook the Lamborghini at the end of the finishing straight.
With a lead of 10 seconds at one point, the Mercedes-AMG driver headed for the pit lane for the second time. The driver change took place on Owega, who received a new set of tires for his second stint. A clever move, because last year’s champion quickly got the fresh Pirelli tires into the ideal working window and defeated Kalender in a thrilling finish.
“I’m not entirely happy with my performance today,” said Kalender. “In the last few laps, the deteriorating tires were my downfall, so I couldn’t put up much of a fight against Salman. There was certainly more in it today, but we’ll come back stronger tomorrow.”
Guest starters Marcel Marchewicz (Schwetzingen) and Julian Hanses (Hilden/both Schnitzelalm Racing) completed the podium in another Mercedes-AMG GT3 with third place. For the 28-year-old Marchewicz, it was a successful guest start.
“It was a mega race,” Marchewicz said. “Julian was competing in the ADAC GT Masters for the first time today and did a great job. Everything went perfectly and the duels on the track were great fun.”
Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main) and Maxime Oosten (NL) crossed the finish line in fourth place in their BMW M4 GT3 from FK Performance. Pole-setters Zimmermann and Hites finished the championship race in fifth place. Michael and Johannes Kapfinger (both Passau/Team Joos Sportwagentechnik) won the twin duel, seeing the checkered flag in sixth place in their Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The second twin duo, Sandro and Juliano Holzem, followed in seventh position in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 from Land Motorsport. The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mike David Ortmann (Ahrensfelde) and Denis Bulatov (Cologne/both Walkenhorst Motorsport) ultimately finished in ninth place.
Simon Connor Primm (Großschirma) and Jonas Greif (Coswig) in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 from Paul Motorsport completed the top 10.
Race two at the Nürburgring airs LIVE on SPEED SPORT 1 at 9:05 a.m. ET on Sunday.