ADAC GT Masters: All Swiss on the podium 🎥
GOOD START TO THE SEASON All drivers and teams from Switzerland competing in the opening race of the German GT Championship at Oschersleben claimed podium places. Defending champion Ricardo Feller, who won the first race, is already back in the lead of the standings.
"Ricky" Feller's new partner Jusuf Owega started the first of the two one-hour races on Saturday in second place in the new Audi R8 LMS evo II GT3 #29 from Land Motorsport (see video). The young man from Cologne was unable to prevent pole setter Franck Perera in Emil Frey Racing's Lamborghini Huracán #19 from pulling away at the front.
Feller made short work of it
The key to success ultimately proved to be the latest pit stop of all the teams. This enabled the gap to the leading Lamborghini from Safenwil to be reduced from four to one second.
Ricardo Feller, who switched to the cockpit, overtook Arthur Rougier, who was ahead of him, in the 33rd lap and saw the chequered flag after 43 laps with a lead of 4.032 seconds. With second place for the best of its three duos, the Emil Frey Racing team celebrated a brilliant debut following the Frenchman's pole position.
Ricardo Feller: "Jusuf put in a top performance and even spared the tires. I braced myself for a long fight with the Lamborghini, but was able to overtake him pretty quickly and finish the race from the front. That was a top start."
Pole man Niederhauser caught off guard
On Sunday, it initially smelled like another Swiss victory after Patric Niederhauser had put Rutronik Racing's Audi on the best grid position. But already at the start, Jules Gounon at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG showed that he didn't want to stay in second place for long.
The Frenchman immediately attacked the Bernese in front of him and overtook him on the first lap. Gounon kept "Nidi" at bay until the mandatory stop and handed over his car to fellow driver Fabian Schiller in first place.
After that, there were no problems on the track for Schiller, who defended his lead in commanding fashion and celebrated his first victory in the ADAC GT Masters with a lead of 2.735 seconds over Luca Engstler and Niederhauer, who was cheering along in the pits.
Marciello also on the podium
South African Jonathan Aberdein crossed the finish line in third place, which also secured a podium place for the third Swiss in the field, Raffaele Marciello from Ticino, after finishing fourth the day before.
Fifth place went to the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo #63 from the Emil Frey Racing team with crew Jack Aitken and Albert Costa Balboa. The Spaniard set a new lap record of 1:24.060 at Oschersleben in the German GT Championship.
Swiss in the first three places in the table
Saturday's winners did not finish higher than sixth. Feller and Owega nevertheless left Oschersleben as championship leaders. Second intermediate place is taken by Marciello and Aberdein, third by Niederhauser and Engstler and fifth by the best-placed Emil Frey duo Perera/Rougier - the GTM season could not have started much better for the Swiss.
