Spectacular wheel-to-wheel duels, thrilling full-field duels, drama, collisions and an unexpected winner. The Sunday race of the ADAC GT4 Germany in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben offered thrilling entertainment. Starting from 17th on the grid, Vincent Andronaco (16, GER) and Paul-Aurel König (17, GER, both Allied Racing) in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS drove to a narrow victory after a brilliant race to catch up.
Second place went to Tom Wood (20/GBR) and Euan McKay (26/GBR, both Racing One) in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4. In another Aston Martin, the podium was completed by Saturday’s winners Indy Dontje (37, NLD) and Phil Dörr (21, GER, both Dörr Motorsport), who are the leaders of the standings for the next round of the season at the Red Bull Ring/Austria (20th to 22nd May 2022) travel.
“We didn’t expect this victory at all. The result is simply unbelievably beautiful,” said König on the podium.
First, however, Aston Martin driver Wood set the pace in Sunday’s race at Oschersleben. Starting from pole position, the young Brit quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, brand colleague Dontje and Porsche driver Hendrik Still (34, DEU, W&S Motorsport) fought for second position, which is worth seeing. Behind the leading trio, there were countless overtaking maneuvers with drivers from different brands in the first half of the race – proof of how close together the field is in the ADAC GT4 Germany 2022.
Exciting battle for the top
In the middle of the race, two collisions then occurred in the field. Mercedes-AMG driver Denis Bulatov (23, GER, EastSide Motorsport) had to retire from fourth place after being thrown into the gravel trap by an Aston Martin.
The same happened to the two Porsches of Nicolaj Møller Madsen (29, GER, AVIA W&S Motorsport) and Leo Pichler (20, GER, W&S Motorsport) after a three-way collision with fellow Audi driver Axel Sartingen (57, GER, Black Falcon Team Textar). After the driver changes were completed, race control decided to bring the safety car onto the track to enable the vehicles to be safely recovered.
So the fight at the top was heated up again. McKay, who had taken over the leading Aston Martin from Wood, initially retained the lead. Meanwhile, Andronaco, who later won the race, kept moving forward.
Andronaco benefits from safety car phase
Within a few minutes, the youngster went from sixth to second place. The North German was a few vehicle lengths behind leader McKay. However, a second safety car phase brought the field together again. Andronaco benefited from this.
A few moments after the restart, he finally overtook the leading Aston Martin and secured the first win of the season for himself and team-mate König in 2022.
“To achieve this overall victory is something very special. We didn’t expect that at all. As soon as I pulled out of the pits, I realized that the car was much better than yesterday. We were also faster than our direct competitors. The first safety -Car was good for us because the field was compressed. After that I knew that I could go all the way to the front today. So I went all out. It worked,” said Andronaco, who also won the Junior rating decided for themselves.
Behind McKay, Indy Donjte crossed the finish line in third place. Fourth went to Hugo Sasse (18, DEU) and Mike David Ortmann (22, DEU, both Prosport Racing) in another Aston Martin. The 2021 champions Michael Schrey (39, DEU) and Gabriele Piana (35, ITA, both Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport) finished the race in the BMW M4 GT4 in fifth place ahead of the two Porsches driven by Max Kronberg (35, DEU) and Hendrik Still as well as Moritz Wiskirchen (19, GER) and Alexander Hartvig (19, GER, both Allied Racing).
Böckmann ends up in eighth place
Eighth place went to Marek Böckmann (25, DEU) and Miklas Born (20, DEU, both Schnitzelalm Racing) in the Mercedes-AMG GT4. They were followed by Marcel Lenerz (24, DEU) and Cedric Piro (24, DEU, both Piro Sports – Burg Zelem Foundation) in the Toyota GR Supra GT4, as well as the Porsche duo Tom Kieffer (47, LUX) and Christian Kosch (45, LUX, both Allied Racing), who also won the Trophy classification in tenth place.
Euan McKay – Second place in Aston Martin: “If we had been offered this result on Friday, we would have taken it straight away. However, having led more than 95 percent of the race, it is difficult to be overjoyed. Nevertheless, we are happy with the result satisfied. Without the second safety car we would have had the race under control. But that’s the way it is in motorsport sometimes.”
Tom Wood – second place in Aston Martin: “I had a very good start and a plan for the race in my head. I was able to control the lead and thus also protect Euan’s tires a bit. He did a great job in the second stint “Of course we wanted to win, but second place is still great after a rather mixed race on Saturday. We’re already looking forward to the next race of the season at the Red Bull Ring. Then we want to attack again.”
Dates ADAC GT4 Germany 2022 (subject to change):
April 22-24, 2022: Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
May 20-22, 2022: Red Bull Ring (A)
June 24-26, 2022: Circuit Zandvoort (NL)
05.-07.08.2022: Nürburgring
September 23-25, 2022: Sachsenring
October 21-23, 2022: Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg