In Saturday’s race Fabian Hamprecht and Guy Smith led the way and on Sunday the next top-5 result followed for Bentley Team ABT during the ADAC GT Masters weekend at the Sachsenring. Daniel Abt and Christer Jöns outperformed 27 rivals and finished round four of the season in fourth place. The twelve points awarded for it were literally hard-fought ones.
The final stage of Sunday’s race evolved into a real thriller – exactly the right show programme on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Sachsenring in the ADAC GT Masters. One of the protagonists was Christer Jöns in the number 7 Bentley Continental GT3. After his cockpit partner Daniel Abt, who had started the race from the front row of the grid, had maintained his position in the top 5, Jöns tried to manage the leap onto the podium with a final attack. Initially, the Abt campaigner advanced to fourth position and made a full-size appearance in the rear-view mirror of the Audi in front of him. At the same time, he had to be careful not to fall prey to the attacks of the drivers behind him. “I drove to the ragged edge in order to get past him, but Florian (Stoll) fought tooth and nail. That was a fierce but fair duel,” Jöns said after parking his Bentley Continental GT3, which showed various scars of battle, in the pits.
The two other Continental GT3 cars of Bentley Team ABT scored no points. Guy Smith, who drove the start in car number 8, complained about power loss and dropped to a rear mid-field position. The issue could not be resolved in a brief check halfway through the race. As a result, Smith’s teammate, Fabian Hamprecht, was fighting with a dull weapon following the driver change as well. He saw the chequered flag in position 25. Jordan Pepper advanced the number 9 Bentley to third place during the pit stop stage, but his partner, Andreas Weishaupt, spun his car into the gravel in a duel with a rival and was forced to retire.
“Travelling to the Sachsenring paid off for us,” says Team Director Christian Abt. “Following fifth place yesterday we managed to up the ante once more today. Christer Jöns drove a fantastic race – one of the most riveting ones I’ve ever seen. He’d have more than deserved the champagne shower. It’s a shame that we didn’t quite make it, but our debut season with Bentley is still in its infancy and, following this superb showing, I’m even a bit more excited about the next races coming up.”
In four weeks from now, the next highlight in the ADAC GT Masters will be coming up. The ‘super sports car league’ will be meeting with the DTM and IDM Superbike for the motorsport festival at the Lausitzring on the first weekend in June (3 to 6 June). Prior to that event Bentley Team ABT will be focused on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. In preparation for the 24-hour race on 28/29 May, in which the Kempten-based outfit is going to field two GT3 cars in the ‘Green Hell’, round three of the VLN Endurance Championship (14 May) will be used as a test in competitive conditions.