Christian Engelhart with first points at the ADAC GT Masters

The ADAC GT Masters kicked off its 16th season last weekend at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben near Magdeburg in front of more than 28,000 spectators on site. In the top-class, international field of the German GT Championship with super sports cars from five brands, Christian Engelhart and Ayhancan Güven in the Joos Sportwagentechnik team fought for top positions. The full spectator stands created a great atmosphere at the season opener. Christian and his team mate Ayhancan started the new season optimistically after successful test drives.

Good points on Saturday

The first qualifying session in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Joos Sportwagentechnik also got off to a promising start: Christian had just set the third fastest lap time when the session had to be interrupted due to an accident. However, this lap time was cancelled again shortly afterwards because, according to the timekeeping system, the red flag had been triggered exactly 0.3 seconds before Christian had passed the finish line. Although the light signals in the cockpit and on the race track only turned red after the line, the race control did not recognise the lap time and accordingly Christian had to make do with 9th place on the grid in his debut race for Joos Sportwagentechnik. A bitter moment for the team, as overtaking is traditionally difficult at Oschersleben. But with a good start and a flawless race, Christian and Ayhancan managed to move up to sixth place in the race and thus score their first important points for the championship.

Setback on Sunday

On Sunday, the qualifying for race 2 continued. Ayhancan Güven finished 18th in his first qualifying session in the ADAC GT Masters. In Sunday's race, too, things went anything but well for the #91 - right in the opening phase of the race, Ayhancan's Porsche came into contact with an Audi in the usual starting scrum. Unfortunately, the Audi spun in front of the Porsche and race control decided to impose a drive-through penalty on the #91. This meant that they were more than 30 seconds behind the field. Christian Engelhart then took over at the pit stop and drove the #91 back to the field and eventually finished the race in 21st place.

Christian Engelhart: "Even though not everything went perfectly this weekend, we have taken a lot of positive things with us! The team prepared the car very well and we were definitely competitive. On Saturday, circumstances cost us a better qualifying position. Nevertheless, we managed to get the maximum out of the race with a good race and P6 in the end. On Sunday, after the drive-through penalty right at the beginning, there was nothing more to be gained. But the car was very strong there as well, so I'm optimistic about the next races and I'm sure that there will be some very good results to come. I'm already looking forward to the second race of the League of Super Sports Cars, this time in Austria on 21-22 May 2022 at the Red Bull Ring."

But before things continue in the GT Masters, Christian will start in the GT World Challenge Europe right next weekend. He will compete in the Sprint Cup together with Adrien de Leener and the Dinamic Motorsport team at Brands Hatch.