Michael Ammermüller and Christian Engelhart win the ADAC GT Masters 2020
Fourth place was enough in the end: SSR Performance drivers Michael Ammermüller and Christian Engelhart secured the ADAC GT Masters title for the first time in the final race in Oschersleben in their Porsche 911 GT3 R. Philip Ellis and Raffaele Marciello of Knaus-Team HTP-Winward in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 took the win from pole position. Second place went to the Audi duo Rolf Ineichen and Mirko Bortolotti of Team WRT, ahead of Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet of the Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche. “Winning the title is incredibly emotional for me,” said the newly crowned champion Christian Engelhart. “I cried when Michael crossed the finish line because I always dreamed of winning the ADAC GT Masters.
Early end for defending champions
The fight for the title in the final race began dramatically. At the start, several vehicles collided on the start-finish straight. The most prominent victim Ruronik Racing driver Kelvin van der Linde who was second in the table points, had to park his damaged Audi R8 LMS after a few seconds. The dream of successfully defending the title was therefore already over for the South African and his partner Patric Niederhauser. But table leader Christian Engelhart in the SSR Performance Porsche also had a moment of shock on the first lap: The Porsche driver was turned around in third place by Lamborghini driver Albert Costa Balboa of the GRT Grasser Racing Team but was able to continue unharmed. Only a few seconds later the race was interrupted with the red flag,
After the restart, it was pole-setter Raffaele Marciello who led the way, but was put under pressure by Audi driver Mirko Bortolotti right until the pit stops. Engelhart After the driver changes, Marciello's partner Philip Ellis at the top steadily moved away from Rolf Ineichen, who had taken over from Bortolotti, and finally saw the checkered flag with a 17.699 second lead. For Marciello it was the first victory in the ADAC GT Masters, for Ellis the second after Oschersleben in 2018.
Bortolotti and Ineichen finished second on the podium for the second time this season. Ineichen secured the second victory of the weekend in the Pirelli Trophy classification. Third place went to Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet, who passed their Porsche brand colleagues Ammermüller and Engelhart in the final phase. Fourth place was enough for the SSR drivers to win their first title in the “League of Super Sports Cars”. The point lead on runner-up Renauer is nine points. Your SSR Performance racing team also won the team classification.
Luca Stolz and Maro Engel racing for Toksport WRT, who had also entered the race with a chance for the title, finished fifth and thus still third overall. There Mercedes-AMG brand colleagues Mick Wishofer and Dorian Boccolacci of Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing followed in sixth place. Wishofer also secured the race win in the Pirelli Trophy classification. Audi drivers Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor of Team WRT were in seventh place ahead of the Porsche drivers David Jahn and Jannes Fittje, of Küs Team75 Bernhard. Fittje just missed the title in the Pirelli Junior classification, which went to Lamborghini driver Tim Zimmermann of GRT Grasser Racing Team despite accident at the start.
Quotes from the champions:
Michael Ammermüller (SSR Performance, Porsche 911 GT3 R): “SSR Performance put a great team together in the first season. Team founder Stefan Schlund has definitely chosen the right people, that was certainly the basic requirement for success. With Christian, I have a great team partner by my side, we made few mistakes over the entire season and can really be proud of ourselves! ”
Christian Engelhart (SSR Performance, Porsche 911 GT3 R):“There was a lot of action at the start. I got hit and spun and lost a lot of positions as a result. Fortunately, there was then the red flag. When I restarted I had everything under control. I then paid attention to the tires, so it was not so easy to keep up with the Audi in front of me. ”