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Klettwitz

GT Masters: Pole position and race win for Christian Engelhart at the Lausitzring

Klettwitz, 08-21-2022

With a commanding performance, Christian, together with his Team Joos Sportwagentechnik and teammate Ayhancan Güven, secured the first pole position and the first win of the season for Porsche in the 2022 ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring.

It hadn't rained in the Lausitz region for six weeks, but at the weekend when the ADAC GT Masters was hosted, it was wet. For Christian Engelhart, as an experienced specialist both in the Porsche 911 GT3 R and in the rain, these are good conditions. This was demonstrated directly on Saturday: Pole position in qualifying was followed directly by race victory for Christian's Team Joos Sportwagentechnik.

The race was extremely exciting: After a successful start, Christian drove the Joos Porsche 911 GT3 R safely to position 1 until the handover to his teammate, who also did an excellent job and defended first place all the way to the finish in a thrilling battle with the second-placed Lamborghini.

"We were able to take perfect advantage of the difficult weather conditions and get the best starting position with pole. In the past, the competition at Lausitz has always been very strong. However, with the pole position set, we had a foundation upon which we could rely for the win. We managed this in extremely difficult conditions in the rain," says Christian, summing up the maximum points haul.

Sunday was therefore more challenging due to the 20kg placement weight. On top of that, dry, summery conditions worked to the advantage of the competitors. But surprises are part of motorsport and so the Joos squad managed to score strongly in a curious second race despite ballast.

With a sixth-place start, Christian's teammate Ayhancan Güven achieved another strong starting position. Over the race distance, however, the extra weight from the previous day's victory was noticeable and the Porsche 911 GT3 R initially lost contact with the leading group. This did not affect Christian's rhythm after the driver change in the middle of the race. When hectic conditions arose among the competitors in the final phase of the race, the Porsche driver used all his experience and was able to avoid the duels, duels and collisions.

With this overview and, of course, the necessary racing luck in such situations, Christian improved from tenth place by six positions and crossed the finish line in fourth place in the end. "We got the maximum out of Sunday. It was a very turbulent race and with a very good final phase I was able to secure fourth place. A win, a fourth place and three points for pole on Saturday, you can't achieve much more in one weekend!"

In the championship, Christian and Ayhancan narrowed the gap to the leader to ten points with four races to go. "That was simply a perfect weekend! On Saturday we were able to celebrate the first victory for Team Joos Sportwagentechnik. For my team, of course, an overwhelming result and for Ayhancan it was also the first victory, which makes me just as happy."

The next race in the ADAC GT Masters for Christian will take place on the weekend of 23-25.09.2022 on the "small" Nordschleife at the Sachsenring.