Tough weekend for Jeffrey Schmidt at the Lausitzring
Jeffrey Schmidt headed to the Lausitzring Motorsport Festival for the second weekend of the ADAC GT Masters (19th – 21st May) as the leader in the Junior standings. Some 67,500 spectators came to this joint meeting of the DTM and the Super Sports Car League and watched Jeffrey race. The Montaplast by Land Motorsport driver and team-mate Christopher Haase excelled in their Audi R8 LMS by posting good times and producing a strong performance in the races, but their efforts were to go unrewarded in the end.
You had an excellent showing in the first race on Saturday. How did you manage to move up to P6 from P12 on the grid before the pit stop?
The first stint of the race was really great. I took a big risk, so as to gain a couple of places straightaway, which worked a treat, until things then got very tight in the second turn. There was a lot of dirt on the track at that particular spot, and we were three abreast through the turn. There was a contact with a Porsche. My car suffered no damage, as my lap times show. We had opted for an aggressive strategy with an early pit stop, which allowed me to push right from the start.
But it was this pit stop that ultimately stopped you from securing a top-class finish. What happened?
Our timing was absolutely spot-on. As soon as the box stop window opened, I was already in it. However, due to the previous contact with the Porsche, the door on our Audi wouldn’t come open straight away, by which time, we’d already lost about five seconds. Christopher finally got in the car, but it took several attempts to get the door shut again, and he obviously then set off immediately. At the time, though, my foot was still a little bit over the demarcation line, so we got a drive through penalty. I understand that I broke the rules, but it seemed a bit harsh. We were ranked sixth and could have secured vital points but were only 13th after the penalty.
The second race was also overshadowed by a penalty. Why did you get a ten-place grid penalty?
The reason for that was the start of the first race and that contact with the Porsche which I’ve already mentioned. As far as I’m concerned, it was a normal racing incident, as can happen at the start. Unfortunately, the Stewards saw things differently, so we had to line up in P13 on the grid on Sunday and not in P3, which ultimately destroyed our race. Our car was fast compared to the competition, but unfortunately, the Audi is a little lacking in top speed when it comes down to being able to really launch an attack. And so, we placed eleventh and narrowly missed a points-scoring finish. The whole thing is extremely annoying, because a lot was at stake on Sunday. I would have liked to have maintained or even extended my lead in the Junior championship, but nothing came of that. I’ll just have to draw a line under this weekend and learn my lesson. At any rate, it was most instructive.
What do you think to this idea of having a joint ADAC GT Masters and DTM meeting as here at the Motorsport Festival?
To be honest, it was a bit like coming home for me. I drove for four years as part of the DTM Support programme and came across many old friends at the Lausitzring, as you might expect. I’m thinking of Swiss DTM driver Nico Müller in particular, but there wasn’t really much time for socialising. The ADAC GT Masters is at such a high level, what with meetings with engineers, setup work and events for fans and everything, that there’s never any time to bother about other race series. Still, I think it’s great for spectators and wonderful to see the packed grandstands as you line up at the start.
You will be off to the Red Bull Ring in three weeks’ time. You have achieved a great deal of success there in the past. How do you rate your chances there in the ADAC GT Masters?
I obviously have very fond memories of Spielberg. It’s where I won my first race in the Porsche Carrera Cup in 2015. However, things will be tough in the ADAC GT Masters. The Audi is good through the turns, but there aren’t many corners at the Red Bull Ring, unfortunately. I hope that the Balance of Performance will be adjusted for this next race weekend, so that we can attack from the front. We’ll definitely give it our all and extract the maximum. Anyways, tracks that really suit our Audi are coming up in the second half of the season.