Sant’Agata Bolognese/Nürburg 18 August 2019 - After securing its first ADAC GT Masters victory of the 2019 season last time out at Zandvoort, Orange1 by Grasser Racing Team bagged a double success at the famous Nürburgring circuit in Germany courtesy of Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart (#63) and Franck Perera/Rolf Ineichen (#82).
Bortolotti took the #63 to its first dry-weather pole position of the year ahead of Saturday’s opening encounter and quickly built up a three-and-a-half second margin over the Audi of Dennis Marschall and former Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe driver Carrie Schreiner.
Bortolotti then swapped with Engelhart at the mandatory driver-change pit-stop with just under 27 minutes - of the one hour race - remaining. Engelhart extended the advantage of the leading Huracán GT3 to over five seconds from the Mercedes AMG of Luca Stolz and Maro Engel. Engel closed to within three seconds by the flag, but Engelhart completed a comfortable second victory in a row.
"It was a tight situation on the first corner, as we all had full fuel tanks and cold tyres and no-one really knew where to brake,” said Mirko Bortolotti post-race, “I have to compliment the whole field on the way they went around it. I then tried to pull away and managed to open up a gap. We made the pit stop at the right time, which enabled us to increase our lead. So, all in all, a great performance and a perfect race for us."
Unfortunately, Sunday’s Race 2 was short-lived for the #63 pairing as Engelhart was forced out with accident damage on the opening lap. Polesitter Perera led the way from the rolling start in the #82 Huracán GT3 and opened a three-second advantage over the Audi of Kelvin van der Linde. This lead grew to over seven seconds after Perera handed over to Ineichen, and the Swiss driver kept it clean to head the second-placed Porsche of Timo Bernhard and Klaus Bachler by 5.366s.