ADAC GT Masters Lausitzring 2025
Rookies Leo Pichler and Simon Birch swept both races for Razoon - more than racing, taking Porsche to the top of the ADAC GT Masters at Lausitzring. Rain, bold strategy, and a stand-out performance shaped a dramatic Race 2. All the German marques and every key moment here.
Rain, Rookies, and a Porsche Breakthrough
It is not often you see a rookie pairing turn a weekend into their own stage, but that is precisely what happened at the Dekra Lausitzring. Leo Pichler and Simon Birch, both newcomers with Razoon – more than racing, powered their Porsche 911 GT3 R to a clean sweep, winning not just the Silver Cup, but the overall race on Sunday. They did so with real authority, finishing almost nine seconds clear in truly dreadful rain.
The story of Race 2 revolved around the weather and how teams navigated the ever-changing conditions. Early on, Pichler and Birch’s Porsche looked confident. A long first pit stop, partly a gamble, partly a necessity, put them in a strong position for the closing stages. After the shorter second stop, Pichler found himself side by side with Denis Bulatov in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2. That was the key contest for the win, and it did not disappoint.
Birch described the experience simply. ‘You dream of a weekend like that. We got everything right, and now we can head home as championship leaders with maximum points. I stayed calm and was able to bring it all the way home. It was really fun in those conditions.’ It was a mature, measured drive, and you have to wonder how far this pairing can go across the rest of the season.
Pichler, perhaps more understated, admitted: ‘I was not expecting it to go so well at all. I knew that we were set up well for the season, but I would never have expected two wins in two races.’ There’s a sense that even the team was surprised by just how strong they were at Lausitzring.
The conditions made for some unpredictable moments. The race saw a red flag and several incidents as the rain worsened. Jannes Fittje, in the SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG GT3, grabbed the lead at the start. It was the kind of opening you might expect from a driver relishing wet conditions. Yet, as the race unfolded, mistakes crept in. Fittje’s teammate, Moritz Wiskirchen, slipped into the gravel after the pit stop twice, handing the initiative to the chasing Audi and Porsche.
Wiskirchen took it in stride. ‘Those are some important championship points. I struggled a bit after the pit stop and slid into the gravel trap on two occasions, which cost me the lead. Generally speaking, I like the endurance format a lot. It delivers tension and gives us more wiggle room in terms of strategy.’ That summed up the mood in the Mercedes-AMG camp: satisfaction for the podium, but a sense that it could have been more.
For Audi, it was a case of ‘so near, yet so far’. Nico Hantke and Denis Bulatov, racing for Scherer Sport PHX, finished second. Bulatov’s attack on Pichler after the stops was aggressive, but as he admitted, a small error proved decisive: ‘The rain helped us, and without that red flag we might have got the win. When the Porsche came out of the pits after the stop, I knew I only had one chance. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, but luckily nothing happened and we finished second.’
The other German manufacturers had less headline-grabbing weekends, but still picked up points. The Land-Motorsport Audi of Carrie Schreiner and Alain Valente came home seventh. For BMW, it was a low-key afternoon. FK Performance Motorsport, with Tim Zimmermann and Leyton Fourie, finished eighth. The Schubert Motorsport BMW, driven by twins Sandro and Juliano Holzem, followed them home in ninth. Neither team featured in the main battles, but both stayed out of trouble in a race that claimed several victims.
Porsche’s day was not just about the overall win. Fach Auto Tech, another Porsche team, saw Alexander Fach and Alexander Schwarzer top the Pro-Am standings despite finishing tenth overall. It showed the breadth of the marque’s strength on a day when the conditions could have tripped up even the most experienced line-up.
You get the sense that the combination of the Lausitzring’s unpredictable weather and the endurance format played into the hands of those willing to take risks, or at least adapt quickly. While the next GT Masters weekend at Zandvoort will return to the sprint format, you suspect the confidence gained by the likes of Pichler and Birch will not disappear overnight.
One last note: Simon Birch’s performances earned him the ‘Road to DTM’ classification win at Lausitzring. Not a bad way for a teenager to announce himself.
The championship now moves on, but Lausitzring will be remembered for its rookie winners, its rain, and a Porsche squad that made everything look easy.
