The first half of the ADAC GT Masters season in facts and figures 27.07.2017: • Championship leader Jules Gounon heads most of the lists for achievement • 15 drivers take race wins

•    Championship leader Jules Gounon heads most of the lists for achievement

•    15 drivers take race wins

•    Fastest race in series history at Red Bull Ring




Four of the seven ADAC GT Masters race weekends have now been run, and racing in the Super Sports Car League continues next week (4th - 6th August) at the Nürburgring. In the meantime, here is our summary of stats from the first eight races.
 


- Jules Gounon in the Corvette is the most successful driver so far with two wins and heads the championship standings. Some 14 other drivers representing six teams have secured race victories. Callaway Competition and GRT Grasser Racing Team are the best teams with two wins each.
 


- As far as the different manufacturers go, three are out in front. Corvette, Lamborghini and Porsche have each triumphed twice while Audi and BMW have both booked one win.
 


- Gounon also leads where the number of podium places is concerned, having achieved four in all. Three more drivers, team-mate Daniel Keilwitz, who had to give Zandvoort a miss due to injury, and title defenders Connor De Phillippi & Christopher Mies (Audi), finished on the podium three times. In all, 31 drivers managed to place in the Top Three in the eight races.
 


- Two drivers have between them secured half of the eight pole positions. Jules Gounon and Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti went fastest twice in qualifying, and four others each took one pole position
 


- Bortolotti also won through by the smallest margin in what was the closest qualifying of the year so far at Zandvoort. The Italian's pole time was a mere 0.015 seconds up on that of Maximilian Götz in the Mercedes
 


- The small gaps between cars in the entire field also impressed time and again. On Saturday at the Lausitzring, for example, just 0.838 secs covered 21 vehicles in qualifying
 


- With an average speed of 170.9 km/h, Christian Engelhart and Rolf Ineichen (Lamborghini) set a new record at the Red Bull Ring for the fastest race in the Super Sports Car League which debuted in 2007
 


- The slowest race of the first four race meetings held so far this season was also the only one affected by rain. The winners, Christopher Mies and Connor De Phillippi, drove at an average speed of 118.4 km/h on Sunday at Zandvoort
 


- As was the case last year when he was in front with Keilwitz as team-mate, Gounon again heads the standings after the first four race weekends. With 113 points, he has now scored seven points fewer than at this point in the season last year, but the gap on his closet rival, BMW driver Philipp Eng, is bigger at 44 points. Gounon & Keilwitz had a cushion of 29 points on eventual title winners De Phillippi & Mies at this stage of the season last year
 


- Seven drivers have posted the fastest race lap in the eight races staged so far. The only driver to go fastest twice in a race is Lamborghini works driver Christian Engelhart
 


- Aged just 16 years, 10 months and 29 days when he headed out on track at Oschersleben, Swiss teenager Ricardo Feller is the youngest driver ever to compete in the ADAC GT Masters
 


- Mike David Ortmann, aged 17, and his partner at BWT Mücke Motorsport, Frank Stippler, aged 42, have the greatest difference in ages within a driver pairing
 


- Jules Gounon also heads the standings in the Junior stakes for drivers under 25 which has a strong field of 17 drivers. The Frenchman has so far achieved three wins in class, the most so far this season. Jeffrey Schmidt has taken two wins to date, Luca Stolz, Ricky Collard and Ezequiel Perez Companc one each
 


- In the Trophy classification for amateur drivers, Rolf Ineichen has secured five class victories, Sven Barth was successful twice in the Corvette, and Remo Lips once in the Nissan
 


- The lead changed hands the most times in a single race on Sunday at Zandvoort. The top position changed four times between five different vehicles
 


- In the races held so far this season, the Corvette bearing start number #77 has been in the lead for the most laps, 71 in total - more than any other car in the ADAC GT Masters. Gounon led the field for a total of 38 laps with Keilwitz and for 33 laps with van der Zande. Some 14 different cars have been at the head of the field so far this season
 


- Mercedes driver Sebastian Asch is the most experienced competitor in the field, having contested 127 ADAC GT Masters races
 


- Two outfits managed to secure championship points in all eight races - Aust Motorsport and BWT Mücke Motorsport. As far as drivers go, the top score of seven points-scoring finishes was achieved by Jules Gounon and the Mercedes pairing of Luca Stolz & Luca Ludwig
 


 


2017 ADAC GT Masters Calendar
 
28/04/17 - 30/04/17          Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
19/05/17 - 21/05/17          Lausitzring (with DTM)
09/06/17 - 11/06/17          Red Bull Ring, Austria
21/07/17 - 23/07/17          Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands
04/08/17 - 06/08/17          Nürburgring
15/09/17 - 17/09/17          Sachsenring
22/09/17 - 24/09/17          Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg
     
    
           
      
 
Oliver Runschke, Kay-Oliver Langendorff, photos ADAC