ADAC GT Masters 2012 - Round 5 - Red Bull Ring Austria

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neil
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ADAC GT Masters 2012 - Round 5 - Red Bull Ring Austria

Post by neil » Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:01 pm

Not the best weekend for ALPINA...


Car 1 qualified in 9th and 17th
Car 2 qualified in 23rd and 19th

In race 1

Car 1 finished in 13th
Car 2 finished in 19th

In race 2

Car 1 finished in 18th
Car 2 finished in 14th !

I presume weight penalties from round 4 are main reason - but if anyone has anymore insight - please tell !

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Post by neil » Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:04 pm


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Post by neil » Tue Aug 14, 2012 4:41 pm

ALPINA's press release following last weekends race:

Add 50kg to the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3’s 1380kg dry weight combined with the many elevation changes of the Red Bull circuit makes for a super challenging start to the second half of the ADAC GT Masters Championship.
 
The weekend’s races on the former Formula 1 circuit in Styria were as difficult as expected for ALPINA. Defending champion Dino Lunardi and Maxime Martin had to cope with a lot of success ballast after winning at the Nürburgring and hence missed to score any points in Austria. Lunardi/Martin’s closest competitors also failed to cash in, Alessi/Keilwitz in their Corvette are only three points ahead of ALPINA. They had to retire in race two while leading due to engine problems.
 
As predicted the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 was the heaviest car on the grid, which had considerable negative effects on the long uphill sections of the Redd Bull Ring. Qualifying results were slightly better than expected, Lunardi qualified for 9th position and Martin qualified 17th for the second heat. After the start Lunardi immediately felt the pressure of the pursuers and dropped to 13th which Martine defended to the finish.
 
Sunday’s second race started similar, Martin dropped to 22nd after the first lap, but ALPINA profited from penalties and technical problems of the competitors and moved up to 12th. But ALPINA was then also struck with a drive-through penalty following an alleged pit-stop violation and finished 17th.
 
"That was certainly not a very successful weekend for us, but at the end we can still be lucky, as our hardest competition didn’t score good points either“, Maxime Martin said. “During the last few months our BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 has been made slower by the organisers with reduced power and more weight. In the wet conditions at the Nürburgring this didn’t come into play, but here it was obvious that this was a step too far and we struggled a lot.“
 
"The championship gets very exciting now and comes down to a battle between Corvette, Porsche, Mercedes and ALPINA. The competition in ADAC GT Masters is really fierce. Many teams, who were not yet sorted out early in the season or had new cars have caught up now. This doesn’t make it easier for us, especially as the performance of the BMW ALPINA was choked by the organisers (it drives like a tank now). In the second race we received a drive-through penalty, but even without that, we wouldn’t have scored any points this weekend”, says ALPINA’s Andreas Bovensiepen.
 
In a second BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 of ALPINA customer team LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler, Florian Spengler and Johannes Leidinger also started at the Red Bull Ring. The Engstler-drivers drew attention with fast times in free practice and warm-up and finished in 19th and 14th position in the two races.
 
The next ADAC GT Masters weekend takes place in 14 days from the 24th to the 26th of August at the Lausitzring in Brandenburg. In ALPINA´s championship winning 2011 season, Lunardi and last year’s co-driver Alex Margaritis finished fourth at the Lausitzring in both races.

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Post by neil » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:14 pm

Added some photos from the weekend:

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and a few more

http://www.thealpinaregister.com/photos ... dbull-2012

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