The journey to the ADAC GT weekend in the mountains at the Red Bull Ring was a rewarding one for Bentley Team ABT. Following second place in Saturday’s race clinched by Christer Jöns and Fabian Hamprecht, the team was successful again on Sunday. This time Daniel Abt and Jordan Pepper celebrated on podium. In mid-summer temperatures the duo in the yellow Continental GT3 clinched second place.
Daniel Abt had started the race from third place and defended this position up to the pit stop phase before turning over the car halfway through the race to his partner Jordan Pepper. The South African maintained this position as well, would not let any rivals overtake him even during two restarts following safety car phases and ultimately saw the chequered flag after one hour of racing in third place. Due to a retroactive exclusion of the winner, the duo subsequently advanced to second place. The result of the youngster duo equates to second place in the Junior classification in the ‘super sportscar league’.
“I still tried to attack the car in front of me,” Pepper reported, “but in the slipstream the vehicle temperatures increased and I repeatedly had to back off. Still, second place is a great result and the well-deserved reward for our mechanics who worked at full stretch to make the Bentley fit again following yesterday’s issues.” His teammate Daniel Abt added: “I’m happy. After three podium places in the second half of the Formula E season I finally managed the leap onto the podium in the ADAC GT Masters as well. The race was extremely strenuous in the heat, so having a well-prepared car was all the more important. I’d like to thank the team and Bentley for that.”
Christer Jöns and Fabian Hamprecht in the white Continental GT3 were running in fifth place some of the time. However, during the course of the race yesterday’s runners-up were struggling with fading brakes and in the end had to settle with six championship point for seventh place.
Marco Holzer and Andreas Weishaupt in the third Continental GT3 of Bentley Team ABT were unfortunate. Shortly before the driver change Weishaupt got into a tussle with two other cars and was forced to retire after a collision.
“This was a great weekend with two second places overall and a victory and second place for the Junior trophy,” Team Director Christian Abt summed up the event. “This success is the reward for a lot of hard work and shows that the changes we made to the driver line-up paid off. As expected, the pairings with their particular styles of driving are better matched. This contributed to our good results as well. We won’t stop working with concentration to follow up with further podium results.”
ABT Head of Marketing Harry Unflath was happy about the second place clinched by the yellow Continental GT3 as well: “At 19 and 23 years of age, Jordan and Daniel are the third-youngest driver pairing in the field. And they outperformed a number of clearly more experienced rivals. I take my hat off to the coolness with which they mastered the race. But the performances shown by the other drivers from our squad make me look forward to the final sprint of the season that’s now beginning with eager anticipation as well.”
Rolf Frech, Board Member for Engineering at Bentley Motors, extended his congratulations as well “I watched a really strong weekend by Bentley Team Abt at the venue. You could tell that the Continental GT3 numbers among the top vehicles in the world’s most competitive GT3 series. Christian Abt and his squad tweaked the right things during the summer break and that paid off.”
In just two weeks’ time (5–7 August) the double header races of the ADAC GT Masters will continue on the GP circuit of the Nürburgring. Bentley has fond memories of the Eifel. In May, the Britons together with Bentley Team ABT finished the legendary 24-hour race on the Nordschleife in a strong seventh place which made them the best foreign brand in what is arguably the world’s toughest car race.
