Molitor Racing Systems ADAC GT Masters season finale review

Victory in Gentlemen-Class and a Starting Accident

Strauß and Gassner secure win in Gentlemen-Class in Saturday´s raceNo participation by the #22 Nissan 

Following a tumultuous season, the ADAC GT Masters Championship came to an end for Molitor Racing Systems this weekend at the Hockenheimring. The Nissan #22 did not compete this weekend and the title in Gentlemen had to be given up.

After the immense damage, which the #22 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 suffered at the accident in Free Practice in Zandvoort two weeks ago, the crew based near Ulm arrived in Hockenheim with a complete race car, thanks to many working night shifts. Due to the short time-frame, it was impossible to complete a test-run. Therefore, the free training sessions on Friday were used as the first run. 

A leak in the turbo-charge system, which was not easily located, prevented the team from participating in the Free Practice. “We worked on the car until just before qualifying to find the leak and fix it. A torn turbo-charge intercooler turned out to be the reason behind the issue, which resulted from the accident at Zandvoort. This could have only been found if a roll-out after the repairs would have happened. We were really happy, that we managed to fix the issues just in time for qualifying and were even more so disappointed, that both Gentlemen-Drivers decided not to take part”, says Karsten Molitor. Both Dominic Jöst and Florian Scholze did not want to do qualifying due to the missed opportunity in free practice, giving away a fairly safe title in Gentlemen-Class.

The Nissan-Team could only continue running with the Number 23 of the two German GT Academy Champions, Florian Strauß and Marc Gassner. Especially Gassner impressed with another great performance, qualifying the race-car in eighth place for Saturday´s race, with only a gap of 0.4 seconds to the top.

After a good start into P6, a heavy accident with the #19 BMW occurred right after the first corner, which meant for the race to be red-flagged. The Nissan suffered heavy damage to the bodywork on the same lap, too, but the parts could be fixed back on during grid formation. The remaining 49 minutes of the race were started behind the Safety Car and Gassner kept 6th place after a good re-start. Unfortunately, the young driver lost two positions in battles for positions going down the straight towards the hairpin. Gassner pitted from P8 and Strauß had a great race, battling with the #3 Audi right until the chequered flag. The

MRS-Crew secured a great result with ninth place overall and victory in Gentlemen-Class. 

During the grid for Sunday´s race, the weather conditions kept changing continuously, making the tyre choice a gamble. Strauß started from P15 into the race on wet tyres, but it was not for long: He was hit right in the first corner by an Audi and spun into the tyre barriers.

Florian Strauß, #23 Nissan:

„This was not the season final we had in mind, but that´s just how it goes in Racing. We did not have an easy year, but Marc and I are extremely thankful for the opportunity given by both Nissan Germany and MRS.”

Marc Gassner, #23 Nissan:

„We had a very eventful weekend. I had a good start into the race on Saturday, but then I got hit from both sides and we were happy for the race to be stopped, because we could fix the bodywork. We were able to finish the race and drive home victory in Gentlemen-Class – which is a nice finish to the season.”


Related Motorsport Articles

84,520 articles