Sachsenring: Coronation for Niederhauser 🎥

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE CHAMPIONS The 2019 ADAC GT Masters ended in style with the third victory of the season for Patric Niederhauser and Kelvin van der Linde, who had already been crowned champions. Instead, everything went against junior title contender Ricardo Feller. Patric Niederhauser and his dream partner Kelvin van der Linde had already been standing as champions in the ADAC GT Masters for two weeks [...]

Editorial - September 30, 2019

Patric Niederhauser and his dream partner Kelvin van der Linde had already been crowned champions in the 2019 ADAC GT Masters for two weeks. At the Sachsenring finale, they went one better.

Outstanding constant performance
With their third victory of the season in the 14th round, the man from Berne and the South African also secured overall victory for the new HCB-Rutronik Racing squad in the prestigious team classification at the first attempt. The head of the Audi customer team is former amateur racer Fabian Plentz, while Sporting Director is former DTM driver and Le Mans winner Manuel Reuter (1989 with Sauber-Mercedes).

On Saturday, a puncture deprived the duo of a good top ten position. On Sunday, Van der Linde qualified the Audi R8 LMS for pole position with a superior best time. That was already half the battle as the champion car set the pace from start to finish in the one-hour race with driver changes as well.

Patric Niederhauser: "Kelvin was in such an incredibly good mood. I'd have bet 500 euros that he'd be on pole here. When he handed the car over to me with a clear lead, the biggest job was done. I just had to concentrate on not making any mistakes on the increasingly dirty and slippery track. We're happy for the whole team, who have done a sensational job over the year. The mechanics also put in an extra shift both nights to give us a perfect car on both days. I've never seen this kind of effort from any team all year, and it's also the main reason for our success."

Kelvin van der Linde, Patric Niederhauser and HCB-Rutronik Racing were the outstanding combination in the 2019 ADAC GT Masters with their Audi R8 LMS (Photos: ADAC Motorsport).

In addition to three wins in Most (CZ), Hockenheim and at the Sachsenring, they finished second on the podium at Oschersleben at the start of the season and at both races at the Nürburgring in the summer. Added to this was a third-place finish at the Red Bull Ring. Only at Zandvoort (NL) did they have a weak weekend. The result is the championship title with a points lead unprecedented in 13 years.

Disappointment and incomprehension at Feller
Apart from Niederhauser, only Ricardo Feller also won a race (in Zandvoort). Having traveled to Saxony as third overall and leader in the hotly contested Junior Trophy for drivers under 25, he experienced a debacle here.

Patric Niederhauser ahead of Ricardo Feller: Both Swiss were already on their way to a top result in race 1, but only the champion managed it on Sunday.

Just before the decisive finale, Audi Sport dispatched Feller's trusted regular partner Dries Vanthoor to the Blancpain GT Series at Barcelona. Frédéric Vervisch, who like Vanthoor is also a contract driver for Audi Sport customer racing, was not an adequate replacement. Not only was the Belgian slower than the 19-year-old, he also made mistakes and contributed significantly to the Aargau native's unsuccessful weekend. As a result, Feller slipped to third place in the Junior standings, while his teammate at Land Motorsport, Max Hofer, clinched the title.

In addition, the second strongest Swiss driver in this year's field was still pushed from third to fifth place by Saturday's winners Dontje/Götz on Mercedes and his teammates in the overall standings of the 2019 championship. In his disappointment, he still expressed himself politely.

Ricardo Feller: "I think it's a shame that Audi Sport didn't care about my possible junior title and separated Dries and me as a well-rehearsed pair. You can see that now from my teammates, who finished on the podium twice here, how important that is. I wanted to win this championship. Otherwise, I had a good season. Speed-wise I was all over the place, only made two mistakes all year, less than my paid teammates, so I'm happy with my performance."

Disappointed Ricardo Feller. It's a shame that Audi doesn't show more interest in the talented youngster who was often faster than the factory drivers (Photo: Peter Wyss).

Of the other Swiss, only Nikolaj Rogivue (Audi) and Rolf Ineichen (Lamborghini) scored points in Saturday's race, finishing tenth and eleventh (ahead of Feller).

GT4 team classification to Hofor Racing
Martin Kroll, as car owner and team partner, had reason to celebrate in the ADAC GT4 Germany, which also concluded at the Sachsenring. Michael Schrey (D) and Thomas Jäger (A) steered one of the two BMW M4 GT4s from Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport to third place in Sunday's race.

Together with the third-best points score of the second pairing Claudia Hürtgen/Michael Fischer (D/A) in Saturday's race, this was enough for the Swiss-German team to take the team title. The drivers' classification went to Mads Siljehaug (N) and Eike Angermayr (A) on one of the all-too-superior KTM X-Bow GT4s at the Sachsenring.