Kelvin off to a flier

Driving the Prosperia C Abt Audi R8 LMS ultra alongside established star René Rast, 17-year- old Van der Linde secured pole position for the race on Saturday.

Rast did the job in the second qualifying session and claimed pole for Sunday’s race.

Saturday’s race did not get off to a great start as Van der Linde was forced to concede the first corner to a fast starting Mercedes and emerged down in sixth place.

From then on he drove with total commitment and began making up places. By half distance he was up to third and then handed the car over to Rast who made up another place to bring the car home in second place.

Rast started Sunday’s race two and won the drag down to turn one but a massive startline accident behind him brought out the red flags.

He held the lead on the re-start and after a faultless stint behind the wheel he handed over the Audi to Van der Linde with a narrow lead.

Initially Van der Linde came under pressure, but he kept his cool and managed to open a bit of a gap to take the flag 2.4 seconds ahead of the GW IT Racing Porsche.

Rast, a former Porsche Cup champion, was full of praise for his young team-mate: “Kelvin drove a fantastic race, didn’t make any mistakes and withstood massive pressure from the opposition.”

Van der Linde became the youngest driver in the history of the series to start from pole, plus the youngest ever winner.

Round two of the ADAC GT Masters championship takes place at Zandvoort, Holland on 9-11 May. – Own correspondent.