GT Masters: a pair of 1-2s for Mercedes AMG at Sachsenring 26.09.2022: For the Saturday race at Sachsenring, Raffaele Marciello put the #48 MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF entry on pole position. Shortly after the start of the race, the ADAC GT Masters points’ leader didn’t pay attention for a brief while, a situation from

For the Saturday race at Sachsenring, Raffaele Marciello put the #48 MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF entry on pole position.



Shortly after the start of the race, the ADAC GT Masters points’ leader didn’t pay attention for a brief while, a situation from which Fabian Schiller benefited: having started from second place, the fellow Mercedes-AMG driver took over the lead with the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by Drago Racing Team ZvO.


After the mandatory pit stop, Schiller’s teammate Jules Gounon defended the lead against Daniel Juncadella, who had taken over from Marciello. After 45 laps of the 3.645 kilometres long undulating track, Gounon crossed the finish line 1.167 seconds ahead of Juncadella, who completed the 1-2 for Mercedes-AMG.



Fourth place for Marvin Dienst and Jan Marschalkowski (both GER, Mercedes-AMG Team ZvO) and P7 for Frank Bird (GBR) and Elias Seppänen (FIN, MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF) rounded out the success.



For the Sunday race, the #8 Mercedes-AMG Team ZvO car (Dienst, Marschalkowski) and the #48 MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF entry (Marciello, Juncadella) had secured the best grid positions for the cars from Affalterbach on the third row.

With a good opening stage, both Jan Marschalkowski with the #8 car and Daniel Juncadella with the #48 quickly made up positions. After the chance to Marvin Dienst and Raffaele Marciello respectively, the two Mercedes-AMG GT3s were already on course for a podium finish and were able to take over the double lead just before the end of the race. After 44 laps, Dienst eventually cemented his first win of the season while Marciello collected further valuable championship points with P2.



The previous day’s winners Jules Gounon and Fabian Schiller, meanwhile, had bad luck. In qualifying, Gounon had achieved a new qualifying record at Sachsenring in 1m 17.551s. However, due to an infringement of the regulations (insufficient fuel to extract a reference sample), the result was declared void.



Having started from the back of the field, Gounon started a fulminant recovery drive in the race and brought the #4 car up into P8. During the pit stop, however, issues with the pedals forced the team to retire early. With his pair of second places, Marciello extends his lead in the ADAC GT Masters drivers’ standings and, with an advantage of 42 points, he is the top favourite going into the finale that is held at Hockenheimring on 22nd and 23rd October.






Raffaele Marciello, ADAC GT Masters, driver, MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF #48: “This weekend, we ran through our programme without any problems and we were rewarded with a pair of second places. I was able to extend my lead in the drivers’ standings and I am now looking ahead to the finale at Hockenheimring with a lot of confidence.”



Daniel Juncadella, ADAC GT Masters, driver, MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF #48: “For us, this was a great race weekend. The team has done a super job and I am happy that I was able to give maximum support to Lello in his battle for the title.”



Marvin Dienst, ADAC GT Masters, Mercedes-AMG Team ZvO #8: “Our victory today was simply just great. Thanks to the entire ZvO team that once again prepared a perfect car for us and was able to celebrate two wins this weekend.”

Jules Gounon, ADAC GT Masters, Drago Racing Team ZvO #4: “This was a weekend with mixed feelings. Yesterday, we were able to celebrate our third win of the season, that was fantastic. And today, we missed out on many points in the battle for the championship. After qualifying, we had one litre too little fuel in the tank. That was hard. In the race, it went very well until the bad luck with the pedal box. Today simply wasn’t our day.”



Fabian Schiller, ADAC GT Masters, Drago Racing Team ZvO #4: “We have shown a very good performance all weekend long. Victory on Saturday and then Jules’s fantastic time on Sunday morning: we definitely had the pace to dominate today’s race, too.”



Result race 1, ADAC GT Masters, Sachsenring*:

1.    4    Mercedes-AMG GT3    Drago Racing Team ZvO    Jules Gounon (FRA), Fabian Schiller (GER)

2.    48    Mercedes-AMG GT3    MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF    Daniel Juncadella (ESP), Raffaele Marciello (SUI)

3.    27    Audi R8 LMS GT3    Rutronik Racing    Dennis Marschall (GER), Kim-Luis Schramm (GER)

4.    8    Mercedes-AMG GT3    Mercedes-AMG Team ZvO    Marvin Dienst (GER), Jan Marschalkowski (GER)
…                    

7.    84    Mercedes-AMG GT3    MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF    Frank Bird (GBR), Elias Seppänen (FIN)


* excerpt subject to confirmation by the organiser



Result race 2, ADAC GT Masters, Sachsenring *:


1.    8    Mercedes-AMG GT3    Mercedes-AMG Team ZvO    Marvin Dienst (GER), Jan Marschalkowski (GER)

2.    48    Mercedes-AMG GT3    MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF    Daniel Juncadella (ESP), Raffaele Marciello (SUI)

3.    71    Lamborghini Huracán GT3    Paul Motorsport    Marco Mapelli (ITA), Maximilian Paul (GER)
…                    

10.    84    Mercedes-AMG GT3    MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF    Frank Bird (GBR), Elias Seppänen (FIN)

DNF    4    Mercedes-AMG GT3    Drago Racing Team ZvO    Jules Gounon (FRA), Fabian Schiller (GER)


* excerpt subject to confirmation by the organiser
 




- Jochen Übler, photos Mercedes