Season highlight with success for Top Speed

BOSS GP and Top Speed delivered a show of superlatives at the Grand Prix of Germany, even though Sunday’s race was only a short one.

For the Top Speed drivers Ingo Gerstl, Florian Schnitzenbaumer, Bernd Herndlhofer, Bianca Steiner and Thomas Jakoubek it was the race of their lives: In front of almost 50,000 spectators, Europe’s fastest racing series started for the second time this year at the Hockenheimring, but for the first time ever as support series of the Formula 1 World Championship.

The first race on Saturday was characterised by many overtaking manoeuvres, two safety car phases and the victory of Ingo Gerstl (Toro Rosso STR1). The multiple champion drove unimpressed by the events to his sixth victory of the season, even a rain shower at the end could not stop the man from Salzburg. Phil Stratford and Wolfgang Jaksch joined him on the OPEN podium.

Florian Schnitzenbaumer (Dallara GP2) only started from 11th place in his home race, the FORMULA leader had a brilliant opening stage and was among the leaders within a very short time. The Top Speed driver only had to be beaten by Roy Glaser and his fast team mate Bernd Herndlhofer. The Austrian was on track in a GP2 Dallara for the first time this year. In the perfectly prepared BWT car he was in the lead for a long time, only towards the end he was caught by Glaser. Unclear signals at the restart led to confusion for some drivers, Herndlhofer lost his leading position in this chaos.

Thomas Jakoubek drove an easy but good race – he finished ninth, and that without a practice session before. Bianca Steiner left Hockenheim unhappily. She was involved in a collision in the first race and had to give up.

The second race was abandoned already in the opening stages of the race. We couldn’t give the fans the show we would have liked to show them. A broken barrier after an accident prevented a restart. This means that no points are awarded for the eighth BOSS GP race of the year.

In the overall standings Ingo Gerstl leads with 40 points ahead of the runner-up. In the FORMULA class Florian Schitzenbaumer has extended his class lead at the Hockenheimring. With a 37-point lead before the next race in Assen (August 17-19), he has also pulled out a major gap to his competitors.

Pictures: Daniel Glaser/BOSS GP