With a hard-fought seventh place, Thierry Vermeulen and Mattia Drudi were able to provide a reconciliatory end to the season in Sunday’s final round of the ADAC GT Masters at Hockenheim, after the duo had to retire from the race on Saturday due to a puncture. The sister car with the #69 and drivers Florian Spengler and Markus Winkelhock, on the other hand, missed the finish in both races.
The race Saturday began with the morning qualifying session. Thierry Vermeulen took his seat in the #33 car, while the #69 was driven by Florian Spengler. As usual, the field in the ADAC GT Masters was extremely close. In the end, Thierry Vermeulen was only 0.5 seconds behind, which earned him 10th place on the grid. Just a few hundredths behind him, Florian Spengler was 13th.
Both drivers lost a few positions at the turbulent start. After just a few laps, Spengler was also involved in a hard battle with a rival, with both cars touching. Unfortunately, Spengler then had to park his Audi R8 LMS evo II with a damaged rim. Thierry Vermeulen and his partner Mattia Drudi fought their way back within reach of the top 10 with good lap times when a puncture caused by a run-in carbon part also ended the #33’s race prematurely.
Sunday greeted the competitors with bright sunshine for the final qualifying session of the season. And the ADAC GT Masters once again lived up to its reputation as an extremely close championship, with all 20 competitors finishing within just 0.8 seconds of each other. With positions 11 (#69) and 12 (#33), Markus Winkelhock and Mattia Drudi were able to place themselves in the midfield. Drudi was subsequently given a three-place grid penalty.
As expected, the last race of the season got off to a turbulent start. Unfortunately, the driver of the #69 Markus Winkelhock was in trouble on the very first lap. After a great start, he had contact with a rival in the hairpin, after which he had to park the damaged Audi in the pits. Mattia Drudi, on the other hand, lived up to his reputation as an excellent starting driver from 15th position and was able to make up several positions. Thierry Vermeulen, who took over the wheel of the #33 midway through the race, also shone with strong lap times. The Dutchman cleverly held his own in the extremely competitive final phase and pushed forward to seventh place with strong overtaking moves. This means that the Car Collection Motorsport team can say goodbye to the winter break with a good result.
Credit: C.O. Mediavision / Christopher Otto