SPA, Belgium — Tom Kalender and Elias Seppänen from Landgraf Motorsport were the measure of all things on Saturday at the Belgian Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. In the second endurance race of the ADAC GT Masters, the Mercedes-AMG drivers left no doubt about their title ambitions and crossed the finish line as winners after a convincing performance. This also allowed them to further extend their lead in the championship.
“I had a good start and was immediately able to pull away from the field. The strategy worked perfectly and the car was optimally set up. I hope we can continue in the same way on Sunday,” said Seppänen after the seventh championship race.
(NOTE: All ADAC GT Masters races air on SPEED SPORT 1)
With second place, the two Swiss Alain Valente and Jean-Luc D’Auria (both Emil Frey Racing) secured their first podium of the season in the Ferrari 296 GT3. Third place went to Denis Bulatov (Cologne) and Mike David Ortmann (Ahrensfelde) in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Walkenhorst Motorsport.
The GT3 cars started the race on the prestigious and impressive Ardennes rollercoaster in sunny conditions and with an outside temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. At the beginning, Seppänen managed to build up a lead of 4.6 seconds over the Ferrari from Emil Frey Racing. However, an accident by the Swiss Grégory de Sybourg (FK Performance Motorsport) within the first quarter of an hour caused a safety car phase and the field moved closer together again. At the restart, the Landgraf driver kept the upper hand at the front, marched ahead again and headed for the pits in first position. There the Finn handed the car over to Kalender, who returned to the track in seventh place due to the different strategies of the teams.
Alexander Schwarzer (D) and the Swiss Alexander Fach in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Fach Auto Tech were now at the front. After a few laps, however, Finn Wiebelhaus (Obertshausen) in the Mercedes AMG-GT3 from the Haupt Racing Team pushed past Schwarzer and took the lead. Because he drove into the pits too early for his second stop, Wiebelhaus had to head back to the pit lane one lap later. As a result, he lost both time and a few places. In the meantime, Kalender fought his way up to third position.
“Elias was lightning fast at the beginning and got our car into a promising position,” Kalender said. “When it was my turn, I had to hold my own against some competitors in the midfield, which was a lot of fun.”
After the second stop, it was Seppänen again who set the pace at the front and confidently maneuvered the Mercedes-AMG across the finish line. In second place, the Emil Frey Racing team celebrated its best result of the season.
“Our racing speed was great. We gave it our all and are super happy with our first podium finish,” said D’Auria about Saturday’s race.
Ortmann was in third.
“Unfortunately, the start was not ideal, but with a great strategy and a strong second stint, we were able to make up a few places and finally get back on the podium,” Ortmann said. “We want to really attack again in the sprint race on Sunday.”
Maxime Oosten (NL) and Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main) took the chequered flag in fourth place in their BMW M4 GT3 from FK Performance. The top five were completed by Chandler Hull (USA) and Nico Hantke (Hürth/both Walkenhorst Motorsport) in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, who were also delighted with their victory in the ProAm classification. The twins Sandro and Juliano Holzem (both Polch) in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 from Land Motorsport came in sixth, ahead of the second twin duo Michael and Johannes Kapfinger (both Passau/Team Joos by TwinBusch).
The Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 from the Grasser Racing Team with the Chilean Benjamin Hites and Tim Zimmermann finished the race in eighth place. The American Taylor Hagler and the Austrian Gerhard Tweraser (both Grasser Racing Team) came in ninth, ahead of Fittje and Wiebelhaus in 10th place.