The fifth race of the 2017 World GT Series was held this week at the Nurburgring. This marked the start of the second half of the season. Before the race, STAX Racing were second in the Constructors’ Championship table behind EVAL Simracing and in front of Epic Racing. Nico Barclay was third in the Championship, having finished every race in the points so far, twice in P3. Thomas Hinss bounced back from his DNF in the first race and scored valuable points in the last three races. Before the German GT race, he was seventh in the championship.
In a field of just 13 starters, Nico qualified in second position behind Risto Kappet. He had a mega start, was able to outbreak the Estonian driver going into Turn 1 and made the move stick in Turn 3. For the next few laps, the two drivers ran very close to each other while building a gap to third-placed Philip Morby. After three laps, the pair was six seconds in front of the Draig Racing driver already. On lap five, Nico had a sideways moment while braking for Turn 1. He went wide and Risto was able to pass the Peruvian for the lead. Nico tried to stay close to the EVAL Simracing driver, but little by little the Championship leader was able to pull away from him. By the start of Lap 15, the gap was about seven seconds. Nico pitted at the end of that lap and rejoined the race in P6. On the next lap, he made slight contact with Rauno Muru when the TTF driver swerved into Nico’s line whilst entering the pits. Epic Racing’s Chris Shepherd decided not to pit during the race. However, unlike the previous race, Nico was able to pass the Englishman and was back in P2 when Osvaldo Angelone pitted on Lap 17. He finished the race 17 seconds behind Risto Kappet.
Below, you can find a video posted by Nico. It shows the start and the opening lap.
Thomas Hinss started from fifth position. He lost two places on the rundown to Turn 1, where he immediately regained those places as Teder and Muru were running wide. On Lap 5, Philip Morby spun in Turn 1. At the same moment, Thomas made the slightest of contacts with Angelone under braking. The STAX Racing driver later reported that he didn’t feel any impact and thus thought the resulting half-spin of Angelone was an unforced error. Whatever the case, Thomas now was in P3. After his pitstop, he rejoined the race in sixth position but gained back two places when Fuller and Angelone pitted in the following laps. While he was able to catch Chris Shepherd by about 1 to 1.5 seconds per lap, the Epic Racing driver had a gap of roughly 26 seconds. Meanwhile, Thomas had to defend his position from Osvaldo Angelone. On lap 22, the Cosmo Autosport driver was able to overtake Thomas. However, in the second to last lap, Angelone missed the apex of Turn 1 and Thomas was right behind the McLaren driver again. Both drivers were running nose to tail through the following corners. The fight for the last step on the podium came to an end when Thomas tried to overtake Angelone on the outside of Turn 6. He touched the grass which resulted in a spin. Fortunately, Thomas had enough of a gap to Rauno Muru to finish the race in P5.
Nico is still 3rd in the Championship behind Risto Kappet and Chris Shepherd. The gap to second-placed Shepherd is just 12 points. Thomas gained one place and is now sixth in the championship. In the Team’s Championship, STAX Racing is second behind EVAL Simracing and in front of Epic Racing. The next round of the 2017 World GT Series is held at Spa-Francorchamps on June 8th, 2017.
Below, you can find the results of both the qualifying and the race of the German GT Cup race.
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Italics indicate Fastest Laps
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