GT3/GT4: Swiss top even without victory 🎥

BUT IT COULD BE BETTER While Yannick Mettler scored a double podium in the GT Open at Spa, no Swiss managed a top finish in the ADAC GT Masters and GT4 at Spielberg - yet they lead the championship. The initial lead of the Bentley of Crestani/Mettler in Race 1, the change of the lead and the podium are in [...]

Editorial - 20 October 2020

The initial lead of the Bentley of Crestani/Mettler in Race 1, the lead change and the podium can be seen in the two-minute highlights.

For Yannick Mettler, the air in the International GT Open is nowhere near as thin as for his Swiss GT3 colleagues in the ADAC GT Masters. For this reason, podiums are the minimum goal for him on a race weekend.

Successful defense
With pole position for Saturday's race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Yannick Mettler and Fabrizio Crestani, who realized the fastest time this time, followed up their commanding victory at Monza. In Belgium, the pursuers seemed to have better race pace and put increasing pressure on the Italian in the Lazarus Bentley Continental GT3 in Saturday's race.

Crestani fought back bravely and handed the car over to the Lucerne driver while still just in the lead. In the second part of the race, Mettler had to let the eventual winner on a Ferrari 488 go, but was still able to finish second thanks to energetic defense.

Yannick Mettler and Fabrizio Crestani are a good match in GT Open, as evidenced by two more podium finishes in Belgium.

Wise decisions
For Sunday, the team made some changes to the Bentley chassis to focus more on race performance. With a 10-second handicap at the pit stop (for the podium the day before), the duo had an additional hurdle to overcome in the second race anyway.

The decisions made paid off at the end of the race. After Mettler had handed over the car to Crestani in a promising position, the latter was able to attack again on fresh tires and finish in the top three shortly before the end. A subsequent time penalty due to a mistake during the pit stop no longer had any influence.

Yannick Mettler: "We can be very happy with the weekend, we understand the Bentley better and better. Now we want to use the final race in Barcelona in two weeks to say thank you with more good results: to Bentley, the team and all the sponsors who helped to make this difficult season a success."

The performance density in the ADAC GT Masters is enormous. In Spielberg, the BMW customer teams Walkenhorst (#10) and MRS GT-Racing (#14) each drove to a race win (photos: Gruppe C Photography).

Consistency pays off for the defending champions so far
The otherwise strong Swiss drivers fell short of their potential at the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring. Patric Niederhauser and Kelvin van der Linde (Audi R8) only came close to the podium for once. However, they scored good points as eighth in both rounds and still saved a one-point advantage in the overall standings. They are the only duo to have always scored points so far.

In the first race, Philip Ellis and Raffaele Marciello drove to 6th place in a Mercedes-AMG. In the second, Nikolaj Rogivue and German Maximilian Hackländer, who set the fastest race lap, achieved their best result of the season so far from 21st on the grid with 7th place in another Audi R8.

No points were scored by Rolf Ineichen (Audi) and the Sachsenring winners. Jeffrey Schmidt (Callaway Corvette) had to settle for 21st and 18th place. Philipp Frommenwiler had to miss Sunday's race due to damage to the Mercedes-AMG, as did Simona de Silvestro as a result of an engine failure on the Porsche 911.

Kelvin van der Linde was in fifth place in the early stages of race 2. After one hour, he only managed eighth place.

Apothéloz's arduous defense of GT4 standings lead
Like defending champion Patrick Niederhauser in the ADAC GT Masters, Julien Apothéloz also felt his way in the two GT4 races. With 8th place in the first and 6th in the second one-hour race with partner Luci Trefz, the Zurich native did damage limitation. Because in the championship, the duo remains in front after the most difficult race weekend so far.

Julien Apothéloz: "On Saturday, the safety car came out at the wrong time, whereupon we lost several positions as the winner of the last race due to the time handicap during the driver change and at least still scored good points as eighth. On Sunday, sixth place was the maximum, as we generally lacked grip with the Mercedes. However, it's important that we stay at the top of the standings and can fully attack again without a handicap in two weeks at the Lausitzring."

In the second race, Gabriele Piana (I) and Michael Schrey (D) brought the Hofor Racing BMW M4 GT4 home in third place, their fourth podium of the current season. This means they also remain in the title race.

The final races for the ADAC championship will be held on the last weekend in October at the Lausitzring (instead of Zandvoort) and one week later at Oschersleben.