HOCKENHEIM, Germany — The title battle in the ADAC GT Masters has been decided.
Elias Seppänen and Tom Kalender from Landgraf Motorsport secured the overall victory early with third place in the penultimate race of the season at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg.
Sunday’s race airs LIVE on SPEED SPORT 1.
“It’s simply amazing that we were able to win the championship on Saturday. It’s a fantastic feeling,” said Kalender, who at 16 years, six months and 23 days old will go down in the history books of the ADAC GT Masters as the youngest champion.
Seppänen repeated his success from last year in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. This was the first time that a driver in the ADAC GT Masters was able to defend his title.
“I am very proud of our performance,” Seppänen said. “We have worked very hard for this moment this year. The championship is the well-deserved reward.”
The race was won by David Schumacher and Salman Owega from the Haupt Racing Team, who celebrated their third success of the season. Second place went to local hero Marcel Marchewicz and Jay Mo Härtling in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Schnitzelalm Racing.
The race for Saturday’s race on the 4.574-kilometer-long track started in dry conditions and with an outside temperature of 17 degrees Celsius. Polesitter Marchewicz kept the upper hand on the first lap and was not disturbed by what was happening in the rear-view mirror.
From third position, last year’s champion Owega made a decisive maneuver against the leader of the table Kalender right at the start and took second place. Shortly afterwards, a collision occurred between the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Max Reis and Johannes Kapfinger in the Porsche 911 GT3 R, which resulted in a safety car phase. At the restart, Marchewicz again left no doubt about his ambitions and defended the lead against his brand colleagues Owega and Kalender.
After the obligatory driver change, Schumacher first took over the cockpit from Owega and shortly afterwards the top position from Härtling, who now took over the wheel for Marchewicz. Things got exciting again on the last lap when Schumacher struggled with a technical problem. Schumacher was able to defend the lead in a thrilling duel and brought the Mercedes-AMG GT3 across the finish line as the winner. “In the final phase, I was suddenly no longer able to accelerate at full speed. That was a difficult situation for me, but I really wanted to win and tried everything to stay in front,” said Schumacher, describing the final duel.
“I noticed that David had a problem. Unfortunately, the attack on him did not go as planned. Shortly afterwards, I had to go on the defensive because Elias was getting closer and closer. Ultimately, it was second place, which is a great result for us,” said Härtling, summing up the situation.
Fourth place went to Alexander Schwarzer and the Swiss Alexander Fach in the Porsche 911 GT3 R, who also secured victory in the ProAm classification. The Holzem twins Juliano and Sandro (both from Polch) finished the race in fifth place in their Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 from Land Motorsport. Maxime Oosten and Leon Köhler crossed the finish line in sixth place in the BMW M4 GT3 from FK Performance. The two BMW drivers once again underlined their fighting spirit and made up six places during the race. Despite a strong performance, the German-Dutch duo were unable to win the big title. Jannes Fittje and Finn Wiebelhaus from the Haupt Racing Team in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 also put in an impressive performance.
From last place, Wiebelhaus made an impressive comeback with ten position improvements, which ultimately put the two in seventh place. The two Swiss Jean-Luc D’Auria and Alain Valente in their Ferrari 296 GT3 from Emil Frey Racing finished in eighth place, ahead of Tim Zimmermann and Benjamin Hites in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Denis Bulatov and Mike David Ortmann in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport completed the top 10.
On Sunday, the last remaining points of the 2024 ADAC GT Masters season will be awarded.