A month ago in May ADAC GT Masters season 2022 got underway in german circuit of Oschersleben. Flying Finn Konsta Lappalainen had an excellent start for the season as was in 2nd position in juniors standings after first racing weekend. However now in second weekend, which was driven in austrian circuit of Red Bull Ring, he and his austrian team mate Mick Wishofer suffered technical difficulties and therefore dropped to 4th position in juniors standings.
In first race of Red Bull Ring swiss Emil Frey Racing drivers suffered a penalty which the jury had given them and therefore 10th position in juniors stadings wasn’t what they had hoped for. Then in next day their hopes for a podium position came to an end just before entering the grid as clutch failure caused the retirement.
Also the high level of competitiveness delivered mixed feelings for the two young drivers. 0,5 and 0,3 seconds gap to pole position in qualifyings gave middle field starting positions. Lappalainen was frustrated because of misfortunate racing weekend.
– Season 2022 Austrian weekend of ADAC GT Masters can be told in one word: Crushy. In qualifyings we drove nearly a perfect laps and even we were just a blink-of-an-eye slower than pole position drivers, our starting positions was in 8th row. The level of competitiveness in ADAC GT Masters is very, very and very high. Then in Saturdays’ race we got a penalty due causing a collision even we wasn’t the ones who caused the collision, Lappalainen shares his thoughts.
– After collecting our thoughts we entered with high hopes to Sundays’ race. However as we were about to start going from pits to grid the clutch of our Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo broke up and therefore our race came to an end before it got underway. Because we had no time to change the clutch, it was game over for us and zero points, dissapointed Lappalainen continues.
Austrian Red Bull Ring racing weekend was a big success for BMW M4 GT3 car german driver Niklas Krütten and his british team mate Ben Green as these junior group leaders collect two superior overall victories and therefore increased the gap to 28 points. Finnish BMW-team Schubert Motorsport driver Jesse Krohn delivered 5th and 2nd positions in overall standings for the team and Elias Seppänen finished the races in 11th and 12th positions in junior group.
Next event for Lappalainen gets underway in two weeks at French circuit of Paul Ricard as GT World Challenge Endurance series continues in three jours and 1000 kilometres race.
Final results ADAC GT Masters Austria, Saturday 21.5.2021: Juniors Top-3:
1. Ben Green (GBR) & Niklas Krütten (GER), BMW M4 GT3, 41 laps
2. Joel Sturm (GER) & Sven Müller (GER), Porsche 911 GT3 R, +13,5s
3. Jusuf Owega (GER) & Dries Vanthoor (GER), Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3, +22,285s
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10. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Mick Wishofer (AUT), +39,562s
Final results ADAC GT Masters Austria, Sunday 22.5.2021: Juniors Top-3:
1. Ben Green (GBR) & Niklas Krütten (GER), BMW M4 GT3, 41 laps
2. Joel Sturm (GER) & Sven Müller (GER), Porsche 911 GT3 R, +6,479s
3. Jusuf Owega (GER) & Dries Vanthoor (GER), Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3, +12,202s
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DNS. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Mick Wishofer (AUT), technical problem
ADAC GT Masters standings 2022: 4/14 rounds, Juniors top-5
1. Ben Green (GBR) & Niklas Krütten (GER), 105p
2. Jusuf Owega (GER), 77p
3. Fabian Schiller (GER), 56p
4. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Mick Wishofer (AUT), 52,5p
5. Joel Sturm (GER), 48p
