First start – first victory. Finn Gehrsitz celebrated a brilliant debut in the ADAC GT Masters last weekend. On Sunday, the 18-year-old young driver and his partner Sven Müller celebrated their first victory in the Super Sports Car League. The duo had already finished fifth the day before in the Joos RACEmotion Porsche and Gehrsitz climbed onto the junior podium in third place.
Finn Gehrsitz completed his first outing in the ADAC GT Masters last weekend. The “League of Super Sports Cars” has long been one of the best GT3 championships. This year, too, the starting field is compact but high-class. Finn Gehrsitz competed in the Joos by RACEmotion team, which narrowly missed out on the championship last year. He contested the two opening races in Hockenheim alongside Porsche driver Sven Müller.
After Finn Gehrsitz had put in a strong performance on the hot asphalt of the Hockenheim Motodrom during the free practice sessions on Friday, things got serious for the 18-year-old for the first time on Saturday morning. Qualifying for Saturday’s race was on the agenda and Gehrsitz was able to hold his own in the tight field with a seventh place, even if he was not entirely satisfied with the results of the practice sessions.
The young driver also started the one-hour race from this position. He pulled off several impressive overtaking maneuvers in the first few laps. However, he made contact with an opponent, which earned him a penalty from race control. Two “penalty laps” dropped Gehrsitz to the back of the field, but he was subsequently able to make up some ground with a good race pace. After partner Sven Müller took the wheel towards the middle of the race, a safety car phase brought the field back together. Müller, who had already made up several places with strong lap times, took advantage of this opportunity and subsequently fought his way up to near the podium. In the end, the experienced Porsche driver was able to secure fifth place for himself and his team. Finn Gehrsitz thus took third place in the Junior classification and stood on the ADAC GT Masters podium for the first time in his young career.
The race Sunday was to overshadow this good result once again. Sven Müller took over qualifying and placed the Joos Porsche in a very good third place. After the start, the experienced Porsche works driver made up another position and handed the car over to Finn Gehrsitz in P2 in the middle of the race.
The young German was immediately able to put pressure on the leader and overtake him in the hairpin. Finn Gehrsitz then drove away from his opponents with strong lap times and was able to clinch his first victory in the ADAC GT Masters after one hour of racing. This puts him in second place in the overall championship. He also won the day’s Junior classification and is now in the lead in this championship.
Finn Gehrsitz: “This victory is absolutely incredible! After things didn’t go so well for me yesterday, I decided to show myself today that I can do things differently. I didn’t quite meet my own expectations yesterday with seventh place in qualifying and perhaps wanted a bit too much in the race after some good overtaking maneuvers. I feel sorry for my opponent and I accept the penalty. The team simply did an incredibly good job today, the car felt great all weekend and Sven always delivered the best performance. Our aim was to score as many points as possible in order to be among the front runners in the championship. We succeeded in doing that!”
*The images originate from the following providers: Axel Weichert
