RNW Staff

Youngsters to the fore! The youngest was the fastest, both in DTM and in DTM Trophy. Sébastien Loeb, René Rast, Mirko Bortolotti, Laurens Vanthoor and defending champion Maximilian Götz: during the official DTM test at Hockenheim, the established stars all slotted in behind 19-year-old Marius Zug. At Hockenheim, the world’s GT racing elite assembled with 29 professionals from 15 nations. Never before in the 35 seasons of the long-standing series so far, the field had been more international and so many racecars hadn’t been on the grid since the DTM comeback in 2000. The start of the promising season with spectacular motorsport is in three weeks’ time, from 29 April until 1 May at the Portuguese Grand Prix circuit of Portimão.

Fast lap times, pit stop practice, and determined drivers and teams: The official ADAC GT Masters pre-season test in Oschersleben offered a taste of what spectators and fans can look forward to at the season-opener, which takes place at the same venue on 22nd April. Over the course of the six sessions, with a total duration of over eight hours, the drivers completed 3,182 laps and a distance of 11,668.394 kilometres. The test provided the drivers with their first opportunity to check out the new tyres from series partner Pirelli, which impressed in both dry and wet conditions. The teams also used the innovative fuel “Shell Blue Gasoline 98 GT Masters” for the first time. Roughly 50 percent of the components are renewable in the new fuel, which was developed by Shell exclusively for the German GT Championship. While the drivers held back a little on a damp track on Tuesday, the lap times fell consistently when the track dried out on Wednesday. The new ADAC GT Masters season gets underway from 22nd to 24th April at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.

Twice an Audi on top: on both days of the official DTM test at Hockenheim, an Audi driver posted the fastest time. Two-time runner-up Nico Müller (SUI) topped the timing sheets on the second day with a time of 1m 38.532s in the Team Rosberg Audi R8. On the previous day, 19-year-old Marius Zug (GER/Attempto Racing) had been even faster with 1m 38.344s. Behind Zug and Müller, Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti (ITA/Grasser Racing Team) was next up in the combined results of the two days with 1m 38.644s, followed by three-time DTM champion René Rast (GER/1m 39.682s), who is making his comeback in the long-standing series with the Team ABT Audi following a one-year absence.

Whelen Engineering/Action Express Racing is the defending Long Beach race winner from a year ago, and drivers Pipo Derani (Brazil) and Tristan Nunez (Boynton Beach, Fla.) hope to make it back-to-back wins when the team heads to the West Coast for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach April 8-9.

The long wait for GRT’s first outing in the DTM came to an end this week. On 5 and 6 April, the team made its debut at the pinnacle of GT3 racing in the official test at the Hockenheimring. With its four Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO, the Austrian squad had a strong showing right from the start at the first test. Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti on each day finished one session at the top of the standings and concluded the event in second place on Wednesday. Rolf Ineichen, Clemens Schmid and Alessio Deledda showed a steep learning curve on their first appearance in the DTM.

The 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS campaign is up and running after Imola delivered a typically combative Endurance Cup race on Sunday afternoon. 

The streets of Long Beach, California will come alive with the sound of race cars this weekend as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns for another exciting race event. The 47th Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place April 8-10, and Wright Motorsports is on the hunt for another podium finish at the 1.968-mile temporary street course. The No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R secured a third-place finish in 2021, and now the 2022 pairing of Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen will fight for their second podium of the new season.

WeatherTech Racing is ready to take on the streets of Long Beach at this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 8-9. 

Connor De Phillippi and John Edwards will co-drive the GT Pro class No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 in the 100-minute Long Beach Grand Prix race on April 9th, the shortest IMSA race of the season.  BMW M Team RLL will also focus on a single entry for the remainder of 2022.

While the Grand Prix of Long Beach is the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 100-minute event is the first “sprint” race of the season. It is also the first of the year outside of the state of Florida, beginning a two-race swing on the West Coast for North America’s top sports car racing series. The shortest event of the season, the April 9 race on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary course laid out on the streets of Long Beach, California, features four Porsche customer teams campaigning the 911 GT3 R race car. Porsche is tied for most sports car wins by a manufacturer on the Southern California circuit with nine victories, the most recent in 2019.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will make its ADAC TotalEnergies 24H Nürburging debut this year, when AMR partner team TF Sport takes on the famous race for the first time on 28-29 May.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) will return to North America’s longest-running street race this weekend, when it takes both its NTT INDYCAR SERIES and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship programs to the coast of Southern California for the 47th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

British-Korean driver Jack Aitken overcame a challenging start to his GT World Challenge Europe campaign to record a top 15 finish in the opening Endurance Cup race of the 2022 season.

Round one of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Imola in Italy over the weekend, 2nd/3rd April, produced a challenging start to the 2022 season for Gold Cup competitor Alex MacDowall and Barwell Motorsport team-mates Sandy Mitchell and Rob Collard.

Daniel Harper showcased his impressive speed and racecraft during a hugely promising debut in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Imola this past weekend (02/03 April).

With the largest field of participants in over two decades, drivers from 15 nations and GT race cars from six brands, DTM is getting its 36th season underway. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week already, the official test days at Hockenheimring are the first encounter. Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and, for the first time, Porsche have been entered for the new season in the long-standing race series with a total of 29 GT race cars. The drivers’ field assembles 15 nations and 36 high-class championship titles. This Monday morning, DTM surprised with the announcement that nine-time rally world champion Sébastian Loeb will be making his debut in the internationally acknowledged race series. The Frenchman will be participating in at least two races with the Ferrari of the Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse team as a replacement driver for New Zealander Nick Cassidy.

For Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, the first season round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola ended with a double podium, a PRO-AM class victory and another class podium. After an action-packed race with numerous safety car interventions and full-course yellows, the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of the Mercedes-AMG Team AKKODIS ASP ended up in second place overall while the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry also made it onto the podium by finishing third. At the same time, the #20 SPS automotive performance car got the new year off to an optimal start with its PRO-AM success. The #5 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 secured another podium result during the premiere of the newly introduced Gold Cup as it finished third in this category.

Gus Bowers and Konstantin Lachenauer completed a dream double at Imola, converting race two pole position into a comfortable victory in their Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin on Sunday. Right behind, the Centri Porsche Ticino Cayman of Alex Fontana/Ivan Jacoma took the Pro-Am laurels in second overall, with the AGS Events Aston Martin of Wilfried Cazalbon/Julien Lambert coming out on top of a tight Am class battle.

Loris Spinelli and Max Weering completed back-to-back Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe victories for Bonaldi Motorsport in a second race which was punctuated by three full course yellow periods. The #61 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 started second on the grid and maintained that position until the final stages when Spinelli passed race-leader Dmitry Gvazava (#9 Target Racing).

Team WRT struck the first blow in the battle for the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS title with victory in today’s Endurance Cup opener at Imola, ensuring that the new Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 enjoyed a perfect competitive debut.