Nürburgring was the fifth round of the German ADAC GT Masters championship. 21 race teams together with Czech-German duo Jakub Knoll and Lennart Marioneck from Senkyr Motorsport were ready to fight at Eifel Mountains.
“Nürburgring was the most difficult race weekend for us so far. Everybody know that changing weather is at Nürburgring ordinarily but what was going on last weekend was really tough. Both our drivers fought with the conditions very well and I think we can be happy with our result,” said team boss Robert Senkyr.
“I’m little bit sad for the Saturday’s race because we should call the Jakub to the pits one lap earlier. It was at safety car phase and it looked like the track is drying out so we wanted to change tyres at last possible moment. But then the safety car phase ended and we were going to the pits in normal racing conditions. It cost us some valuable seconds and maybe also the second place in Gentlemen Trophy. But the third place is also a good result. After the race we have decided to change the engine of preventive reasons. The night working sessions was long, but the car was ready for the warm-up in the morning. Unfortunatelly the morning practice was canceled because of weather conditions so Lennart started without any function test of new engine into the race.”
“It was really intensive rain on Sunday but the car raced very well with Lenny behind the steering wheel. Also at Sunday there was a safety car phase so we changed our drivers very soon. Jakub has an small collision with the Callaway Corvette during his first laps and it was not possible to follow the pace any more with the damaged right front tyre,”said Senkyr.
BMW Z4 GT3 took on 6th. place in Gentlemen category and 17th overall in Sunday’s race. It means that Jakub Knoll gained another 39 “bronze grade” points.
Lennart Marioneck: “Saturday’s race was good for us because we were able to get the podium in the Gentlemen Trophy. Race was difficult due to the changing conditions. It was race full of different strategies but we have learnt a lot today. Sunday’s race was difficult so I didn’t take any risks. We were also little bit lucky because of the safety car and our pit stop so we can gain some positions. After safety car phase Jakub sadly hit another car and damaged a car. So finally we couldn’t get to good result. But good news is that the car isn’t damaged so bad so it will be fixed for another race. I’m really looking forward to Sachsenring.”
Jakub Knoll: “It was a race weekend of two totally different races. The first one was tough with changing conditions. It was dry on start but then started to rain so we have to change the tyres. But Lenny showed his skills again and get a good result for us. I’m very disappointed with the second race. I struggled a lot on after the small race accident with the damaged car and was far away from another’s drivers pace. Everyone in the team worked very well during the weekend and car was perfect. Also our pitstop was very quick but after that I’ve crashed and it was over.”
Three races still remain in the ADAC GT Masters calendar. First of all it’s a Sachsenring where the Senkyr Motorsport is going to race in two weeks (28. – 30.8.). After Sachsenring it’s all over the Zandvoort and Hockenheim so a lot of points and experiences in the game. Senkyr Motorsport Team will start with both their Z4 GT3’s in the FIA CEZ race at Slovakiaring in the free weekend between Nürburgring and Sachsenring.