The return of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to the ADAC GT Masters went as expected for PROsport Racing. To fit into this strong GT3 field from zero to 100 was the expected difficult task. But with solid steps, Chris Esser’s team improved the lap times, also compared against the lap times from the 2019 debut year.
In the two qualifying sessions, Heinemann and Owega did the same lap time at Hockenheim to within a thousandth of a second. On Saturday, GTC champion Heinemann and the only 16-year-old Owega turned their laps consistently and without mistakes. In the end, the PROsport duo achieved 17th place in the field of 28 cars. The course of the race was repeated on Sunday, and the Vantage GT3 finally crossed the finish line in 21st place.
Christoph Esser, Teamchef PROsport Racing:
„We knew that after a two-year abstinence with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 it would be difficult to pass the hard-fought ADAC GT Masters straight away. The fact that the test sessions were cut on Thursday due to the storm didn’t help us either. Nevertheless, we fought our way closer. It wasn’t an easy task for Tim and Salman, no question about it. We know where to start after this sobering weekend.”
#17 Tim Heinemann:
„Our test in Hockenheim the previous week was rainy, on Thursday two out of three test sessions fell victim to the storm. That affected us all weekend because we couldn’t catch up in the two practice sessions on Friday. As a result, both races were sobering.”
#17 Salman Owega:
„Unlike Tim, I hadn’t driven the Aston Martin before. So I missed the tests on Thursday even more. We changed a few things in the set-up, but that didn’t affect the results as we had hoped.”
