Third victory in three races for drivers from SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm. Förderer and Härtling also win the Junior competition. Three manufacturers on the podium: Mercedes-AMG, BMW and Porsche.
All good things come in threes: After their brace of victories at the season opener at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Enrico Förderer (18/Leuterod) and Jay Mo Härtling (22/Sprockhövel, both SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm) also won Saturday’s ADAC GT4 Germany race at the Norisring in Nuremberg. In doing so, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 duo extended their lead in the Drivers’ Championship. Second place in a tactical race went to Gabriele Piana (38/ITA) and Berkay Besler (25/TUR, both FK Performance Motorsport) in a BMW M4 GT4, ahead of Denny Berndt (20/Berlin) and Max Rosam (20/Taunusstein, both Razoon - more than Racing) in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. The result, with cars from three different manufacturers on the podium, speaks for how evenly matched the field is.
Förderer had started the race from pole position. The start of the race produced some really close racing at the head of the field, but the Mercedes-AMG driver then opened a lead of more than four seconds over the course of the first half of the race. However, the man of the first phase of the race was BMW driver Besler, who pulled off some remarkable manoeuvres to quickly climb from fifth on the grid into second place. Besler then came under significant pressure from Denny Berndt in a Porsche, particularly around the halfway point of the race. These three cars would determine proceedings at the front throughout the entire race. As soon as the pit stop window opened, Besler came in for the driver changeover, with his experienced team-mate Piana taking over at the wheel. Förderer waited until the end of the window to hand over to Härtling, as did Berndt to Rosam. Härtling held onto the lead in commanding fashion, while Piana was initially forced to slot in behind Rosam. However, the 2021 champion soon restored the original order and climbed back into second place.
At the head of the field, Härtling ultimately took a comfortable victory with a 16-second lead. That also meant success in the Junior competition. Behind Piana/Besler and Berndt/Rosam, Linus Hahne (21/Oelde) and ADAC Stiftung Sport driver Thomas Rackl (17/Berching, both ME Motorsport) came home fourth in another BMW, ahead of the Porsche duo of Hendrik Still (37/Kempenich) and Philipp Gogollok (19/Bad Homburg, both AVIA W&S Motorsport), and BMW drivers Niels Tröger (22/Dresden) and Andreas Jochimsen (27/DNK, both FK Performance Motorsport).
Seventh place went to Raphael Rennhofer (18/AUT) and Emil Heyerdahl (22/NOR, both Wimmer Werk Motorsport) in their Porsche, followed by the BMW of Philip Wiskirchen (20/Euskirchen) and Tim Reiter (26/Ostfildern, both ME Motorsport), and Luca Bosco (21/ITA) and Julien Apothéloz (24/CHE, both BWT Mücke Motorsport) in a Mercedes-AMG. Fellow Mercedes-AMG drivers Cedric Fuchs (19/Holzappel) and Joel Mesch (20/Erkelenz, both SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm), completed the top ten, earning Fuchs victory in the rookie competition.
Enrico Förderer – winner for SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm: “Unfortunately, I made contact with a Porsche twice at the start. Apart from that, however, the race was super. I was able to open an ever-increasing lead and then manage that advantage, in order to look after the tyres for Jay Mo. Three wins in three races is just awesome.”
Jay Mo Härtling– winner for SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm: “We knew that the cars behind us had strong drivers behind the wheel. As such, the key in my stint was always to keep my concentration and remain focussed. The first three races of the season feel like a dream come true.”
Gabriele Piana – second place for FK Performance Motorsport: “Our early stop landed us in some traffic and we consequently lost three or four seconds. However, I immediately overtook the Porsche to retake second place. After that, it was rather an uneventful race. We are happy with second place, in as much as we got the maximum out of the situation. The Mercedes-AMG was in a league of its own though.”
Berkay Besler – second place for FK Performance Motorsport: “I am very happy with the result. We did our best, but second place was as good as we could manage today. I had a very good start, which I did not really expect. After that, the Porsche behind me built up some good pressure. Gabriele did an excellent job of closing out the race.”
Denny Berndt – third place for Razoon - more than Racing: “It was a nice race. We found a good rhythm from the start. We coped well with the car and were able to be consistent. That was obviously great. The Norisring seems to suit me. We now want to finish on the podium again tomorrow.”
Max Rosam – third place for Razoon - more than Racing: “We are very happy with the podium. Denny did a great job to start with, and set us up nicely. I think I then did pretty well too. In the end, I was able to manage the race consistently. We had great speed on the whole, as the car was set up perfectly. The team really did an outstanding job there.”
