The Wochenspiegel-Ferrari 488 GT3 outsmarted a number of works teams at the 45th running of the Nürburgring 24h Race. The three regular drivers in the VLN, Georg Weiss, Oliver Kainz and Jochen Krumbach, this time supported by Daniel Keilwitz, finished into a superb seventh place. “Even though we are a private team, we made it right into the field of the works’ drivers,” cheered team owner and amateur driver Georg Weiss. “This is a brilliant result.”
The Wochenspiegel Team Monschau (WTM) had already performed very well in practice. In the second qualifying, Keilwitz set the absolutely fastest lap time (8:14.591 minutes) with the WTM-Ferrari. In the top 30 qualifying, none of his direct rivals was then faster. Krumbach drove the fourth-quickest time in the top 30 qualifying which meant fourth grid position for the team. “That was the best result ever that we have so far achieved at the 24h Race,” said a delighted Weiss.
In the race, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of WTM-Racing was in the top ten almost over the complete distance. Moreover, at an early stage, the WTM car set the fastest lap time (8:19.375 minutes) of the complete race. 30 minutes before the race finish, when the team was in tenth position, it started to rain and a dramatic final of the race followed. Final driver Krumbach decided to change to rain tyres – and this was definitely the right decision. The Wochenspiegel-Ferrari improved by three places until the chequered flag came out. “That was an absolutely perfect race and we are very proud of the result”, said Weiss.
Michele Rinaldi, team principle of Rinaldi Racing which was in charge of running the Wochenspiegel-Ferrari, also took a very positive summary: “A race weekend according to plan. Everything worked perfectly. I am just very happy.” And Christiano Michelotto, too, who is in charge of the preparation of the GT cars, was likewise really delighted: “A fantastic result that demonstrates that the customer programme of Ferrari also works at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.”
