News

BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert left the Nürburgring (DE) with a fourth and a sixth place to their name at the end of an eventful fifth race weekend of the ADAC GT Masters. In typically rainy Eifel weather, the ADAC GT Masters returned from its summer break with two spectacular races, packed with incidents, from which the Oschersleben (DE) team was not spared. 

On Saturday, while on course for a podium finish, both BMW Z4 GT3s were hampered by spins caused through no fault of their own. Both incidents involved collisions with the Audi team that went on to finish in second place. Claudia Hürtgen (DE) and Uwe Alzen (DE) in the number 19 car eventually had to settle for sixth place. Dominik Baumann (AT) and Jens Klingmann (DE), in the number 80 BMW Z4 GT3 powered by HUAWEI, were awarded a 30-second time penalty after the race for overtaking during a safety car period which dropped them back to twelfth place. 

Baumann and Klingmann did at least finish the weekend with a fourth place in Sunday’s race. In doing so, they took their points tally to 101 and reduced the gap slightly to the leaders to 50 points. The race came to a premature end on lap two for Alzen and Hürtgen, when Alzen was unable to prevent a front-end crash. The car suffered serious damage, but Alzen was unhurt. The next race weekend takes place from 28th to 30th August at the Sachsenring (DE). 

Timo Frings (Team Manager): “We certainly went into this weekend with higher expectations, and were hoping for more than a fourth place. However, after being unlucky in an extremely tight qualifying, in which a few thousandths of a second cost us several places, we ultimately lost fewer points than we initially feared. We now have a lot of work ahead of us to repair the car in time for the Sachsenring following Uwe Alzen’s crash. He could do absolutely nothing about the crash. That kind of thing can happen in those weather conditions when you start from so far back in the field.” 

Uwe Alzen (BMW Z4 GT3 #19): “I had no chance of avoiding the crash. You only see a spinning car at the last moment and, in these conditions, you cannot afford to swerve too much. It was a big shunt, and the car is pretty badly damaged. The retirement was a real shame, as we had a good set-up for these conditions. We were definitely set for a good result. I must forget about the incidents on Saturday and move on.” 

Dominik Baumann (BMW Z4 GT3 powered by HUAWEI #80): “It was depressing that the race organisers did not take any action on Saturday. We would have classed the collisions as avoidable, at least. It is hard to take when you then see that same car finish on the podium. On Sunday we had a bit of fire in our belly. I would obviously have preferred to finish third, but unfortunately I made a slight mistake. After that, I just wanted to get the car safely to the finish. We even managed to make up a little ground in the overall standings, and we still have six races to go.”