“It was just so awesome, you don’t want to experience it just once!” – Jan Marschalkowski has arrived in the club of race winners in the ADAC GT Masters. The 19-year-old rookie needed more than 24 hours to actually achieve his first victory in the German GT Championship.
“It took a really long time. I only really realized it on Monday evening when I got home. I was just happy and if you look at all the pictures again, it’s awesome,” says he told “Motorsport-Total.com”.
Victory in Sunday’s race at the Sachsenring was the highlight so far in the still young career of the up-and-coming talent from Gräfelfing. While from the outside it may have looked like a gala run by Marvin Dienst, who almost single-handedly made up one place after the other, Marschalkowski’s part in the victory should not be downplayed.
“In the beginning I lost a place at the start because I was unlucky in positioning,” he recalls. “Then I dropped back a bit and opened up the gap a little bit. That way I didn’t have to drive in the turbulent air and was able to protect the tires as much as possible.”
“The day before we saw that there had been a lot of tire damage. That’s why it was clear to us that we would only be able to make the difference in the second half of the race.”
When Dani Juncadella came into the pits in the Landgraf-Mercedes, there was only one announcement to the #8 ZVO-AMG: “Full attack was now called for for eight minutes. These pushlaps were not easy because the tire pressures were already relatively high. But even with that, the car was a rocket, so a big thank you to the team.”
More to lose every round
“I radioed the team to pit because I thought Marvin [mit abgesenktem Luftdruck] can drive faster. But they said that I still have to attack a bit for the overcut to work. It really wasn’t easy with the presses.”
But it worked: Marvin Dienst squeezed in front of Raffaele Marciello. Jan Marschalkowski defeated the absolute benchmark in the AMG Langer in a long-distance duel. He stays down to earth: “I think he got stuck in traffic a bit, but I was already very happy that I made up for the place I lost earlier.”
But it got even better: “I gave an interview and when I came back into the pits we were already third! I thought: ‘Wow, a real podium and not just a junior podium!’ But even then I didn’t believe in winning.”
That changed when Jusuf Owega had to park the Land-Audi #29 with puncture four laps before the end. Dienst was now in second place and was rapidly catching up with the leader Kim-Luis Schramm. “That’s when I realized for the first time that we could win.”
When it came to the overtaking manoeuvre, there was complete ecstasy in the ZVO pits: “Something really happened then. But when we saw that the second-placed car rolled out with tire damage, the tremors started again. We had more and more to lose , heart rate shot up. I just prayed the tire would last.”
Important psychological liberation
As is well known, the tire held up and Dienst drove home the win. The burden on Marshalkovsky that fell off his shoulders was huge. After his high-profile departure in Zandvoort on the warm-up lap and the mistake in the wet race just before the end at the Lausitzring, the rookie was under a lot of pressure.
“I didn’t have an easy time,” he admits. “In both cases it was small mistakes that had a big impact. Luckily we had a somewhat longer break. I was able to press the reset button and come back highly motivated. That’s why the win was extremely important, especially for the mental part.”
“It’s amazing how great the relief is to have experienced such a good weekend. It was just so great, you don’t want to experience it just once!” He already has a chance of repeating it at Hockenheim.
Philipp Zakowski was also happy. The mood at the ZVO team boss was oddly ambivalent, because in the same race the sister vehicle with Jules Gounon and Fabian Schiller lost all chances for the title. At the same time, the rookie and the pink car celebrated their first win. Zakowski described the race to ‘Motorsport-Total.com’ as “Rollercoaster Life”.
“I’ve been with Jan for so long, so of course I’m very happy for him and it makes me very proud,” he continues. “It’s very special for such a young guy to get the first overall win in such a top-class series. He’s a smart guy and has done well before. Victory can only do him good.”