Big triumph for AMG drivers Daniel Juncadella, Raffaele Marciello and Jules Gounon – Here’s how the ADAC GT Masters teams performed in Spa
Mercedes-AMG finally took their longed-for first win since 2013 at the Spa 24 Hours – with three drivers from the ADAC GT Masters. Drivers from three different cars from two teams were united on the winning car, which was entered by Auto Sport Promotion (ASP).
For Jules Gounon, the 2017 ADAC GT Masters champion, it was the second victory at the endurance classic in the Ardennes. The Frenchman already won in 2017 on Audi. He drives for Team ZVO in the German GT Championship, just like his team-mate Daniel Juncadella.
Raffaele Marciello, a title candidate for the Landgraf team in the ADAC GT Masters, and Juncadella took their first victory in the world’s biggest GT3 race, in which 66 cars took part this year under the same regulations.
22 other ADAC GT Masters drivers took to the grid, with Maximilian Götz another driver finishing on the overall podium. The current second driver for Madpanda Motorsport came joint second with Luca Stolz and Steijn Schothorst, themselves no strangers to the ADAC GT Masters, in the Getspeed-AMG.
Nick Catsburg, who swapped his Schubert-BMW for a Rowe-M4 at Spa, was unlucky: together with Nick Yelloly and Augusto Farfus, he was right behind the winning Mercedes-AMG until a puncture two hours before the end ended their hopes of victory. It became P6.
Marco Mapelli (T3/Paul Motorsport) was also among the unlucky tyre failures. The K-Pax Lamborghini set the fastest time in Superpole but was disqualified from the session. From 30th on the grid, it went all the way to the top, but two punctures threw the Italo-sportster back to eleventh place.
Konsta Lappalainen can be happy about a trophy in the Silver Cup. The Finn drove for his regular team from the ADAC GT Masters, Emil Frey Racing. Together with Tuomas Tujula and Stuart White he finished third in the Silver Cup. Here, too, a puncture in the final phase prevented anything bigger.
The reigning German GT champions, on the other hand, came away empty-handed. Christopher Mies, a newly minted father, with Lucas Legeret and Patric Niederhauser, did not finish higher than 19th. A collision during the night damaged the radiator of the Sainteloc-Audi.
Ricardo Feller started for Attempto Racing with his colleagues from the ADAC GT Masters Markus Winkelhock and Dennis Marschall. The car was hit by a puncture already in the first hour and lost the lead lap. In the end, P12 remained.
The only team from the ADAC GT Masters that took part in the Ardennes classic brought one of two cars to the finish: Dominik Fischli, Patrik Matthiesen, Vincent Andronaco and Joel Sturm took seventh place in the Silver Cup. The other car was rammed in an FCY and retired as a result.
Herberth Motorsport, which can be counted among the extended circle in the wake of the now-defunct cooperation with ID Racing, was unlucky: two cars retired. The third was on course for victory in the Pro-Am class when it was run over by a Lamborghini. The car was repaired and was the last car to be classified.