SPORTSCAR

The title defence for Robert Renauer (34, GER) has got off to a great start. Last year’s champion and his new co-driver Thomas Preining (20, AUT, both Precote Herberth Motorsport) top the table after their victory in the Sunday race of the ADAC GT Masters opening weekend at Oschersleben. The Porsche pairing won the second of the 14 races to be contested this season ahead of runners-up Ricardo Feller (18, CH) and Dries Vanthoor (21, BEL, both Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) in an Audi and third-placed Rolf Ineichen (40, CH) and Franck Perera (34, FRA, both Orange1 by GRT Grasser) in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. “Definitely a very good curtain-raiser weekend,” said a delighted Renauer. “The season could not have started much better for us.”

Markus Pommer (28, GER) and Marvin Kirchhöfer (25, GER, both Callaway Competition) are the first two winners of the 2019 ADAC GT Masters. In a thrilling rain-affected race on the Saturday of the opening weekend at Oschersleben, the Corvette came home ahead of second-placed Patric Niederhauser (27, CH) and Kelvin van der Linde (22 , ZA, both HCB-Rutronik Racing) in an Audi and third-placed Jeffrey Schmidt (25, CH) and Christopher Haase (31, GER, both BWT Mücke Motorsport), also in an Audi. “A dream start,” said winner Markus Pommer. “We were aiming for a place in the Top Five and certainly weren’t expecting to actually win.”