In the shadow of the towering backdrop of the Motorsport Festival at the Lausitzring, the Bentley Team ABT produced a strong fighting display in both ADAC GT Masters races, which to a large extent went unrewarded.
Great summer weather, with 67,000 fans packed grandstands and a season best of 34 striking super sportscars: all the ingredients for the ADAC GT Masters double header at the joint Motorsport Festival with the DTM at the Lausitzring were promising. However, the weekend left Bentley Team ABT with a bitter taste.
“After a mediocre qualifying performance, all three Bentleys were running rapidly in both races. However, luck wasn’t necessarily at our side this time,” summarized Team Boss Christian Abt. “When all is said and done we have to be satisfied with second place in Saturday’s race for Andreas Weishaupt in the trophy classification. However, the race performance of the cars means we look forward optimistically to the forthcoming races. Just the post yellow Continental GT3 made up almost 30 positions in both races. This hints at want could have been possible under better circumstances.”
On Saturday, the Bentley Continental GT3 with start number 7, which sported the colors of new team partner Deutsche Post for the first time, was one of the main protagonists. Starting driver Christer Jöns improved from tenth place into the top 5. However, after the driver change, the retirement. In a door-to-door battle, the left front wheel was damaged. The Bentley couldn’t be steered, which left Daniel Abt a mere passenger as the car cannoned into the gravel bed. On Sunday, Daniel Abt threw down the gauntlet as starting driver and moved up from 30th on the grid before handing over the car in 15th place to Christer Jöns, who overtook several other opponents. While running in the top ten in the closing stages, the Bentley was knocked into a spin by competitor – instead of some well earned points the team had to settle for 14th position. “It’s really tough that after all the hard work you can be robbed of your just reward with the finish in sight,” said and angry Christer Jöns. “It’s clear that the racing is sometimes hard in the Masters and some nudging is normal, but to spin around a competitor is not part of the game. Our team really deserved the points after the exhausting days. But the bottom line is that we won’t lose heart and we’ll take the knowledge from the Lausitz with us that we have what it needs to fight at the front.”
The duo of Fabian Hamprecht and Guy Smith were also unlucky. Hamprecht started from 26th position on Saturday and made up nine positions before the pit stop window opened. The subsequent fightback by Guy Smith towards the points was stopped by a minor collision that resulting in a puncture and a turbocharger problem. Nevertheless, the former Le Mans winner still managed to bring the wounded car home in 20th place after making an extra pit stop. On Sunday, the Briton was forced to take an early bath. During a turbulent opening few laps he initially improved seven positions to ninth, before his Bentley was hit by a rival’s car in the turmoil and had to retire to the pits.
Andreas Weishaupt and Jordan Pepper produced the only highlight of the weekend in Saturday’s race. After making a good start, Trophy driver Weishaupt held position among his direct rivals before handing over the Bentley to youngster Jordan Pepper. The South African pushed start number 9 up to 17th place, which meant second place in the Trophy classification for Weishaupt. Pepper also fulfilled his mission in Sunday’s race – this time as start driver. Starting from 17th, he handed over the cockpit to his successor while running in the top 10. However, Andreas Weishaupt was unable to benefit from this: an opponent spun him around, a second torpedoed the Continental GT3, which resulted in suspension damage and retirement.
The ADAC GT Masters takes a summer break after the Motorsport Festival before returning on the weekend of July 22-23 with races seven and eight at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. “We’ll use the free time after the exhausting weeks with the successful 24-hour race to recharge the batteries. Then we’ll work on coming back even stronger after the break,” says a fighting Christian Abt.
