ZANDVOORT, The Netherlands — In the third ADAC GT Masters championship race of the season, Tom Kalender and last year’s champion Elias Seppänen drove from pole position to their second win of the season on the 4.259-kilometer-long Circuit Zandvoort.
For the duo in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, it was also the third podium finish.
“A fantastic day for Tom and me. After a successful start, I was able to build up a comfortable lead over the second-placed driver and hand the car over in the lead,” said Seppänen, describing the first part of the race. Kalender took over the second half.
“Due to the big gap to the driver behind me, I really only had to manage the top position,” Seppänen continued. “To be first to see the checkered flag again at the end is a fantastic feeling that we want to experience again on Sunday.”
Second place went to Tim Zimmermann and the Chilean Benjamin Hites in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 from the Grasser Racing Team.
The podium was completed by the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mike David Ortmann and Denis Bulatov.
At the beginning of the race, polesetter Seppänen kept the lead after a successful start. David Schumacher in second place, however, was involved in an intense duel with the onrushing Hites, which the South American won after several laps and did not give up until the end.
“It was very important to be back on the podium. However, we were not competitive against the Mercedes-AMG. The cards will be reshuffled for Sunday,” said Hites after the race. Bulatov and Ortmann, who started from fifth place on the grid, achieved the first podium finish for Walkenhorst Motorsport with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Bulatov was delighted with third place.
“It is an indescribable feeling,” Bulatov said. “It was our goal from the beginning to be in the top three. To land there in the second event is fantastic.”
