The winner was already across the line, the TV cameras on a package around 13th place. While nothing was happening in that battle group, two cars secretly exchanged positions in the very last meters: Ayhancan Güven in the Joos-Porsche #91 (Engelhart/Güven) lost fourth place to the ZVO-Mercedes #8 (Dienst/Marschalkowski) by Jan Marschalkowski.
What happened? For the second time this season, after Sunday’s race in Zandvoort, there was a drama about Christian Engelhart’s and Ayhancan Güven’s Joos-Porsche. This time it was the right rear tire.
In an interview with “Motosport-Total.com”, Güven explains what happened: “I tried to catch up with Dennis Marschall. That’s why I attacked pretty hard and hit the rear tires hard. I let the tires slip slightly.”
“The team told me I could get him. I’m not one to sit and take the points – especially when we need every point.” Dennis Marschall benefited from the fact that the Joos-Porsche got stuck in the Costa train before the pit stop, which was significantly slower than the first three cars in the race.
Güven’s attack didn’t work: “I had a slow flat tire for about the last five laps. I tried to manage it and drove slowly. In the last two laps it got really bad.”
Less than three tenths decide
Now Marschalkowski saw his chance. “I had actually come to terms with fifth place. Then, two laps before the end, I suddenly noticed that the gap was getting much smaller. I thought to myself that he might have a problem,” he told Motorsport-Total. com’.
In the penultimate corner of the last lap, he finally caught up with the Porsche. However, Güven used his experience from the Porsche Cups to defend himself. “He closed in the penultimate and last corner. I could only open to get a better exit from the last corner.”
And that’s exactly when it happened with Güven: “At the corner exit, the tire fell out of my head. We lost position and two points. But I see that on the positive side. It could have been much worse. At least it was we finish this race.”
With a deficit of 22 points on Raffaele Marciello, he knows himself that he has to catch up from now on: “It goes up and down quickly in this championship. I hope that we can keep our chances open for Hockenheim and with a deficit of less than 20 points arrive.”
It will be anything but easy, because the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was extremely dominant at the Sachsenring: “They have really good pace here, especially in qualifying. They have the advantage.”