Spa, BELGIUM — An important victory for Maxime Oosten and Leon Köhler in the BMW M4 GT3 from FK Performance: On the Belgian Ardennes rollercoaster of Spa-Francorchamps, the German-Dutch duo recorded their third triumph of the current season in the 40-minute sprint race of the ADAC GT Masters.
“I am overjoyed that we won. By coming first, we were able to make up some points on the leaders of the table and significantly improve our chances of winning the title,” said Oosten. His teammate Köhler was relieved after the race.
“Overall, it was a difficult weekend for us. The clutch in particular gave us trouble, but in the end we won and I’m very happy about that.”
The event was broadcast live by SPEED SPORT 1.
The BMW team from Bremen saw the checkered flag in second place, but a 15-second penalty for the original race winners Tom Kalender and Elias Seppänen made the team from the Hanseatic city the winners an hour and a half later. Second place went to Alexander Schwarzer and Alexander Fach in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Fach Auto Tech, ahead of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 of Jonas Karklys and Pablo Schumm in third place. It was the best result of the season for both teams.
The eighth championship race of the ADAC GT Masters on the 7.004-kilometer Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps began with great drama. In the first corner, Kalender hit the rear of the Ferrari 296 GT3 of polesitter Jean-Luc D’Auria. The Swiss driver spun and fell to the back of the field, and had to park his vehicle in front of the Emil Frey Racing garage during the pit stops. This incident allowed Mike David Ortmann to take the lead in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport.
After a safety car phase due to the recovery of a vehicle, Ortmann received a penalty lap for his false start, which dropped him back to eighth position. Kalender was now in the lead, followed by Köhler, who maintained their positions after the pit stops and crossed the finish line in this order. However, Kalender received a 15-second time penalty after the race for his maneuver after the start against D’Auria – the victory went to Köhler.
In the final phase, an exciting battle for class victory in the ProAm classification developed between third to fifth place overall, which the Fach Auto Tech team ultimately won.
“I am completely overwhelmed. After our unfortunate failure yesterday, we are now in second place on the overall podium today, it is a fantastic feeling,” said Alexander Schwarzer.
Benjamin Hites and Tim Zimmermann crossed the finish line in fourth place in their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Denis Bulatov and Ortmann in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport completed the top five. Seppänen and Kalender finished sixth. David Schumacher and Salman Owega in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Haupt Racing Team took seventh place ahead of Jannes Fittje and Finn Wiebelhaus in another Mercedes-AMG GT3 in eighth place.
The third Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Max Reis and Kwanda Mokoena came in ninth place. Simon Connor Primm and Jonas Greif secured tenth place in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 from Team Paul Motorsport.
Kalender and Seppänen continue to lead the drivers’ championship with 159 points, ahead of Oosten and Köhler with 147 points. Seppänen won the trophy in the “Road to DTM” ranking, leading the championship with 182 points. The battle for the title will go into the next round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria from Sept. 27-29. The drivers will contest championship races nine and ten on the track in Styria.