With cool temperatures just above ten degrees and rain in both races, the notorious weather at the Nurburgring prevented Bentley Team HTP from a possible good result in the fifth round of the ADAC GT Masters. On a dry track in Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions, the two Bentley Continental GT3 of Luca Stolz (D) and Vincent Abril, who made his ADAC GT Masters debut, and Schmid (A)/Hamprecht (D) showed great performance and qualified on the first two rows. But in two turbulent races, rain showers and several Safety Cars cost a good result. Stolz/Abril finished seventh in Sunday’s second race, while Schmid/Hamprecht finished ninth.

In the first race, Schmid started from the front row and took the lead at the end of the first half the race when he stayed on slicks during a rain shower. But after troublesome pit stops during the mandatory driver change, both Bentleys lost ground in the latter stages of the race in changeable conditions and finished outside the point ranks in 13th (Schmid/Hamprecht) and 14th (Stolz/Abril) position. Sunday’s second race started on a wet track. In difficult weather conditions, Stolz/Abril finished 7th and Schmid/Hamprecht 9th.

“The performance was good this weekend and we certainly had the chance for a podium finish, but in the challenging conditions, we were unable to deploy our speed” said Bentley Team HTP team principal Norbert Brückner said. „On a dry track we were very fast, on a drying track and in wet conditions we had some deficits. We have to work on our setup in these conditions, but I’m sure we will come back strong at the next round at Sachsenring.“

Driver quotes after the race:

Luca Stolz: “We significantly improved our qualifying performance this weekend and had good starting positions. But in the race, many things went wrong. It was very difficult in both races.“

Vincent Abril: „My debut in ADAC GT Masters was good, but unfortunately we were not as quick in wet as in the dry conditions. The Bentley had good performance and without the treacherous weather conditions, there could have been a very strong result for us.“

Clemens Schmid: “Our qualifying performance was great, but during the race, we had contact, we span and we lost time in the pits. At Sachsenring in 14 days, we will come back stronger and be fast again.“

Fabian Hamprecht: “We made almost nothing out of our good qualifying performance in both races. In the first race we had some problems, and the second race, I was blocked at the start and afterwards had contact with two competitors. That prevented us from taking a better result.“