Hexis Aston triumphs in Germany
Christian Hohenadel and Andrea Piccini won the main event at the Sachsenring round of the FIA GT1 World Championship for the French Hexis Aston Martin team
Hohenadal took the lead of the championship race on lap 10 from fellow Aston driver Stefan Mucke in the best of the Young Driver AMR entries and extended his lead to 3.3 seconds by the time he pitted. Piccini emerged from the pitstop sequence in the middle of the race with a six-second lead that never came under threat.
It was a dramatic turnaround for Hohenadel and Piccini, who started the qualifying race from the back of the grid after Piccini crashed in the first segment of the three-part qualifying procedure. They finished fifth in the first race, a result that owed a lot to another super-fast Hexis pitstop, and then benefited from a first-corner accident that promoted Hohenadel straight to second.
"There was a big mess at the first corner and suddenly I was second," said Hohenadel. "The car felt good, so I pushed and was able to pass Mucke. I then pushed again to build a gap."
Second place went to Dominik Schwager and Nicky Pastorelli in the best of the All-Inkl Lamborghinis. Schwarger passed Mucke for second shortly after Hohenadel took the lead, but a quicker stop by the Hexis team gave Pastorelli too much to do over the second half of the race.
The two Sumo Power Nissans finished fourth and fifth in the hands of Warren Hughes and Enrique Bernoldi and David Brabham and Jamie Campbell-Walter respectively. Mike Hezemans and Nicky Catsburg claimed sixth in the Selleslagh-run Team China Chevrolet.
Pole starter Maxime Martin collided with fellow front row man Stef Dusseldorp at the first corner. Marc VDS driver Martin claimed he had been pushed into the Hexis Aston by Mucke.
Results - 42 laps: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Hohenadel/Piccini Hexis Aston 1h00m27.349s 2. Schwager/Pastorelli All-Inkl Lamborghini + 2.523s 3. Mucke/Turner Young Driver Aston + 4.218s 4. Hughes/Bernoldi Sumo Power Nissan + 22.861s 5. Brabham/Campbell-Walter Sumo Power Nissan + 23.547s 6. Hezemans/Catsburg China Corvette + 23.867s 7. Westbrook/Dumbreck JRM Nissan + 24.287s 8. Leinders/Hennerici Marc VDS Ford + 25.272s 9. Luhr/Krumm JRM Nissan + 26.477s 10. Clairay/Leclerc Belgian Ford + 29.419s 11. Dusseldorp/Piccione Hexis Aston + 55.554s Retirements: Winkelhock/Basseng All-Inkl Lamborghini 19 laps Martin/Makowiecki Marc VDS Ford 9 laps Ickx/Nygaard Belgian Ford 2 laps Enge/Muller Young Driver Aston 0 laps Wendlinger/Kox Swiss Lamborghini 0 laps Nilsson/Janak Swiss Lamborghini 0 laps
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