Christian Hohenadel claimed his first podium in the GT1 World Championship in the second round of the season in Zolder/Belgium. In Sunday’s Championship Race, Hohenadel finished second in the Hexis AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 alongside teammate Andrea Piccini.
The great weekend of Hohenadel in Belgium already started in the Qualifying. In the first segment of the three-parted-knock-out-Qualifying, Hohenadel had no problem to reach the next round with the fifth quickest time. In Q2, it was then on Piccini, who was seventh fastest and brought the silver-black-Aston Martin to the final Q3 round. In the Q3 round of the eight quickest cars, Hohenadel qualified sixth for the Qualifying Race grid.
Andrea Piccini was the starting driver in the Qualifying Race and maintained the sixth place in the first half of the race until the mandatory driver change. An ultra quick pit stop catapulted Hohenadel into the lead after the driver change. Hohenadel was under pressure of his pursuers in the second half of the race, but straight on the way to his first World Championship victory in only his second event. Then, with only four minutes to go, the second placed Lamborghini touched Hohenadels Aston Martin. The touch was not hard, but hard enough to cause damage to the rear suspension of the V12-powered British Coupé. A deeply disappointed Hohenadel had to retire three laps before the chequered flag felt.
On Sunday, it was on Hohenadel to start into the Championship Race. Due to the DNF in Saturday’s race, Hohenadel had to start from 10th position in the middle of the pack. The start went chaotic, but Hohenadel kept his cool and gained two places, running in eight position. He then lost one position before the Safety Car came out and thus avoided the chance of Hohenadel for a better position. Once again an world class pit stop of the Hexis team brought the Aston Martin in contention for the victory, when Piccini left the pit box for the second part of the race, he was second and finally secured the second place after 60 minutes of racing.
„I’m more then satisfied with my second weekend in the GT1 World championship”, Hohenadel said after the race. „From Abu Dhabi to Zolder I made a lot of progress. That we scored our first podium of the season and my very first podium in the World Championship was clearly an effort of the team. Without their perfect job in the pits, this great result would not have been possible. The incident in the Qualifying Race was a shame, we lost a possible victory and it would be easy to calculate were we may have ended in the Championship Race if we would had started the race from the front row and not from 10th position.”
After a fourth and a second place finish in the two first two rounds of the GT1 World Championship, Hohenadel is now third in the drivers Championship.
Source : HEXIS AMR