Porsches out ahead in both races at Lausitzring Maiden poles for Engelhart and Ragginger in ADAC GT Masters Frentzen and Wendlinger in clash of F1 veterans
A perfect platform for Porsche drivers Christian Engelhart (25, Ksching / Team Geyer & Weinig EDV - Schtz Motorsport) and Martin Ragginger (24, Austria / FACH AUTO TECH) ahead of the ADAC GT Masters double bill at the Lausitzring. Engelhart, currently third in the championship and in the vanguard of the Porsche challenge, and Ragginger parked their Porsche 911s at the front of the grid for Saturday and Sunday. "We've been waiting for this pole for quite some time," said a delighted Engelhart. "All we have to do now is make sure that we arrive in the same position we start from."
Engelhart prevails over Renauer und Stoll in contest for pole Christian Engelhart and team-mate Nick Tandy (27, GB) already have two wins to their credit this season; with pole for Saturday's ADAC GT Masters race, Engelhart has secured the perfect platform for a third. In an exciting qualifying in which the lead alternated between Corvette, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, Engelhart launched his own attack relatively late. "I waited a long time and then had a more or less perfect lap, even though I drifted quite wide on the last corner," said a contented Engelhart afterwards. The Porsche driver's flying lap displaced last year's Lausitzring winner Florian Stoll (31, Rickenbach / kfzteile24 MS Racing Team) whose Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG now starts from second position. Qualifying third for Saturday's race was Porsche driver Robert Renauer (27, Jedenhofen / FROGREEN CO2 neutral). He will share the second row with Claudia Hrtgen (40, Aachen / Schubert Motorsport), the fastest woman in the ADAC GT Masters, in her BMW Z4. Three Porsche 911s to lead the charge in Sunday's race The black and yellow 911 of Engelhart and Tandy came very close to securing pole on both days, but fellow Porsche driver Martin Ragginger edged Tandy out by just 0.087 of a second to claim his maiden ADAC GT Masters pole. The Top 3 lockout for the prestigious marque was completed by Nicolas Armindo (30, France / FROGREEN CO2 neutral). Armindo led the timesheets for much of the qualifying session, but was eventually bested by Ragginger and Tandy. "We have been working hard for this pole all season," said a beaming Ragginger. "Our next objective is to get onto the podium this weekend for the first time." Nick Tandy managed to see the funny side of missing out on pole position: "Martin is a head shorter than me so he has a slight weight advantage. Starting from second on the grid when the margin was so small is OK by me." Lurking just behind the three leading Porsches on Sunday is fourth-placed Maxime Martine (26, Belgium / ALPINA) in his BMW ALPINA B6. Starting from the third row are Maximilian Gtz (27, Uffenheim / kfzteile24 MS RACING Team) in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Alfred Renauer (27, Munich / Team GT3 Kasko) in yet another Porsche 911. Anticlimax in qualifying duel between Frentzen and Wendlinger The contest between the two ex-Formula 1 team-mates Heinz-Harald Frentzen (45, Neuss / Callaway Competition) in a Corvette and Karl Wendlinger (43, Austria / Seyffarth Motorsport) in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG ended in a draw. Frentzen seemed to have put his Corvette into P14 on the grid, but following a gearbox failure, the 1997 F1 World Championship runner-up was unable to return his vehicle to the pits under its own engine power. His lap time therefore did not count. Wendlinger, who partners local favourite Jan Seyffarth (26, Querfurt), qualified 27th in his ADAC GT Masters debut.
