ADAC GT Masters Hockenheim MRS satisfied with the final

With huge expectations and a more favorable car classification, the MRS team traveled last weekend to the ADAC GT Masters finale to the Baden Motodrom in Hockenheim. The team from Lonsee wanted again to reach a good result with the drivers Philipp Eng (A) and Fredy Barth (CH). Already the qualifying showed that the hopes were not completely unjustified. In qualifying 1 indeed the Swiss Fredy Barth had to cancel his fastest lap because of a yellow flag, but the driven laps were enough for a starting position in the seventh row. The time gap to the top was so short, that already one-tenth would have been enough for a qualification in the Top6. It went better in the second qualifying for Philipp Eng; straightaway the young Austrian could qualify himself with the MRS McLaren on P6 for the race on Sunday. The race on Saturday went very good for Fredy Barth; after a good start the Swiss could drive the lap times of the top. Unfortunately the forward thrust of Fredy Barth was limited by a drive through penalty, the Swiss had driven his fastest sector under yellow flag. This drive through penalty threw the MRS McLaren back on P18, at the mandatory pit stop Philipp Eng took over the McLaren. Philipp Eng also convinced with fastest laps and finally finished the race as good tenth. On Sunday morning the MRS team again placed a highlight at the warm up, as one of only four cars of the whole weekend Philipp Eng drove a time under 1min 40sec and reached a third position, only separated by some thousandths from the pole. This was again a proof that the McLaren is absolutely able to drive around the top positions, when the classification, the “balance of performance”, fits. With this confidence the MRS team was looking forward to the second race on Sunday. But just before the start the team reached an announcement that the McLaren was banished to the last row. “In the qualifying we drove too much laps. The maximum number of laps is determined in the regulations, of course the penalty for this is very hard”, said a disappointed Philipp Eng before the start. Also the second race should demonstrate how competitive car and drivers are, at the driver change Philipp Eng passed the car on P17 to Fredy Barth. As if there had not been enough penalties at this weekend for the MRS team, Fredy Barth again received a stop and go penalty; the pit stop, which minimum length also is defined in the regulations, was two seconds too short. Despite this penalty Fredy Barth was able with an extremely good performance to finish the race on P14. Karsten Molitor (team leader): „It was still not really easy for us this season. With the new car we had the entire season the problem that the car was not really well classified. As much as we struggled to adjust and prepare the McLaren, it always missed a little bit of performance, so we never had a real chance to fight for the position at the top with our own means. Now, after the classification fit, we could clearly see how fast our drivers are. Even if we could not reach a top result at this weekend because of some penalties, we are still satisfied. The car was really perfect, there were no technical problems at all and the good set-up work of our engineers effected positively in very good lap times. We are very proud of our performance at the warm up, where we were off the cuff able to drive top lap times in only two laps. That makes us very confident that we can talk about the awarding of the championship next year. At this point I want to thank our whole team, our partners and friends, who were always highly motivated during this project. Especially I want to thank our engineers, who in spite of difficult circumstances again and again pushed to their limits. A special thank to the team of McLaren GT for their very good support.” Your MRS Team   Partners