NEWS

Pole position and points for Ortmann / Sasse

Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse put themselves in the limelight in the Sunday race of the ADAC GT4 Germany in Hockenheim with a pole position, a placement in the top 10 and a refreshing race to catch up. It was little consolation for the failure in Saturday’s race in a promising position.

Due to a puncture in the first qualifying, Mike David Ortmann fought his way up position after position with a brilliant driving performance. After the driver change, Hugo Sasse continued to push forward. However, the 16-year-old touched Jan Philipp Springob’s Audi in a daring overtaking maneuver. As a result, Sasse had to park the Aston Martin Vantage GT4, which had been damaged at the front, prematurely. In the second qualifying, Sasse took pole position and thus underpinned his talent. He had to start the race from sixth position due to a grid penalty because of the Saturday incident. Due to an as yet unknown problem, the Vantage did not want to start immediately, so that Sasse had to rush after the field as 32nd and last. Sasse and later Ortmann fought their way through the field again with vehemence and remarkable overtaking maneuvers. In the end, ninth place was more than respectable, and there was applause not only from the team.

While it was Yannick Fübrich’s second outing in the Vantage GT4 after the premiere in Hockenheim in 2019, Yevgen Sokolovskiy, who otherwise competes in the Belgian TCR and Euro-NASCAR, turned his first laps in the GT4 Vantage on Thursday. For the Ukrainian living in Düsseldorf, Germany, each lap was part of a learning process. Fübrich, on the other hand, quickly felt at home in the PROsport Vantage and underpinned his potential with tenth starting position in the second qualifying. In the second race, the Nordschleife expert was happily in the front midfield and was in eighth place at times. After the driver change, Sokolovskiy finished the Vantage in 27th place, just like the day before.

­Christoph Esser, team principal PROsport Racing:
„Basically we are satisfied with our performance in the ADAC GT4 Germany. After the victory at Sachsenring by Ortmann / Sasse we had hoped for more, of course, but a few occurence prevented this. However, the pole position on Sunday shows what was possible. Mike David and Hugo’s race to catch up was simply strong. Yannick shot himself back in quickly, and for Yevken it was the expected jump into the deep end.”

­#18 Hugo Sasse:
„Mike David’s puncture in first qualifying was very unfortunate. And unluckily, the collision in the race was my fault, but in addition to the retirement, there was a penalty of five grid positions. The pole position in Q2 was especially for the team, as an excuse for my misfortune the day before. And my race to catch up from 32nd to 16th was also super cool. That was really fun. Mike David made it up to ninth place. I feel absolutely at home in the PROsport team and in the Vantage.”

­#18 Mike David Ortmann:
„The race to catch up was really fun and showed what we are made of – driver, car and team. But of course we would have preferred to have been further up front in both races. Under normal circumstances, Hugo and I could have fought for victory in both races. Unfortunately, our Hockenheim weekend didn’t go according to plan. Now we’re focusing on the finale and attacking again at the Nürburgring.”

­#16 Yannik Fübrich:
„First of all, I have to say that PROsport has developed the Vantage significantly over the past two years. My tenth place on the grid was good, with a slightly different set-up even more would have been possible. I had a contact early in the race, after which I had more and more vibrations. Nevertheless, I was able to establish myself well in the front midfield around eighth to tenth place.”

­#16 Yevken Sokolovski:
„It was a new experience for me. I only had one test on Thursday to get used to the car. A few more test kilometers would certainly have helped me. It’s a strong field, you don’t get anything for free. I was completely satisfied with the first qualifying, but unfortunately I missed the restart in the first race and because of that the gap was too big.”

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