Denny Berndt and Lachlan Robinson are 2026 champions

Porsche duo knocks Piana and Sylvestersson off top spot in the table. Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok take the race win in Hockenheim. Team title geos to AVIA W&S Motorsport.

Top-class motorsport and excitement right down to the final lap. Hollywood could not have come up with a better plot for the deciding ADAC GT4 Germany race at the Hockenheimring. In rainy conditions, the lead in the championship repeatedly changed hands in the final race of the season. In the end it was Denny Berndt (21/Berlin) and Lachlan Robinson (23/AUS, both AVIA W&S Motorsport) who triumphed in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, knocking their rivals Gabriele Piana (40/ITA) and Benjamin Sylvestersson (19/FIN, both FK Performance Motorsport, BMW M4 GT4) off top spot in the table. The race itself was won by Jan Philipp Springob (25/Olpe) and Philipp Gogollok (20/Bad Homburg, both COSY Racing by ESM) in an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.

Impressions of the ADAC GT4 Germany at the Hockenheimring

All the signs initially pointed towards Piana and Sylvestersson, who started the race from pole position, coming out on top in the title race. A crash in qualifying meant the Porsche of Berndt and Robinson had to start from 15th place. Piana initially held onto the lead, but Robinson had already climbed into the top six by the midway point of the race. Throughout it all, the overriding theme was the rain. While the Aston Martin of Springob and Gogollok was the only car to start on tyres with treads, the rest of the field all lined up on slicks. When the rain started to fall more heavily in the middle of the race, it became clear that the COSY Racing by ESM duo had made the right decision. Springob and Gogollok went on to take a comfortable race win, which also gave Gogollok victory in the Junior competition.

Once the rest of the field had changed to wet-weather tyres, the battle for the title was turned up a notch. Roughly 25 minutes from the end of the race, Berndt, who had taken over from Robinson, produced the deciding overtaking manoeuvre to pass Piana’s partner Sylvestersson. By the time the chequered flag was waved, Berndt had worked his way into second place and wrapped up the title for himself and Robinson. Both were also crowned Junior champions. Sylvestersson, who was also flat out, ended the race in fourth place. As such, the Finn and Piana narrowly missed out on winning the championship. Third place in the race went to Alon Gabbay (22/ISR) and Maximilian Schreyer (17/Marburg, both AVIA W&S Motorsport) in another Porsche.

AVIA W&S Motorsport produced a complete team performance, with fifth place for Nicolas Guillaume (20/BEL) and Frederic Zebis (17/DEN), and sixth for Hendrik Still (39/Kempenich) and Tim Horrell (36/USA). That was enough to give Zebis victory in the Rookie classification, and Still and Horrell victory in the PRO-AM competition. Daniel Schellhaas’ outfit could also celebrate winning the Team title.

Seventh place went to Lucas Cartelle (18/BEL) and Hudson Schwartz (17/USA, both CRT) in a Toyota GR Supra GT4, ahead of Gianni van de Craats (21/NED) and Luis Beilicke (22/Graben-Neudorf, both FK Performance Motorsport, BMW), and Oskar Dix (20/GBR) and Egor Litvinenko (21, both Wimmer Werk Motorsport, Porsche). Linus Hahne (22/Oelde) and Philip Wiskirchen (22/Euskirchen, both ME Motorsport) completed the top ten in a BMW.

Jan Philipp Springob – race winner for COSY Racing by ESM

“That was the craziest race I have ever been involved in. We saw on the grid that everyone was on slicks. We wanted to do exactly the opposite. In the first few minutes, we looked like being the big losers. However, the pendulum then shifted in our direction. The race win is a nice way to end the season.”

Philipp Gogollok – race winner for COSY Racing by ESM

“Mixed feelings, as our goal was to win the championship. Unfortunately, that did not work out, as we were incredibly unlucky yesterday. Today, we took a bit of a gamble with the tyre choice. That paid dividends. We are pleased with the race win, and third place in the overall standings is not bad.”

Lachlan Robinson – 2026 champion with AVIA W&S Motorsport

“It still hasn’t sunk in. When I went to bed on Friday, I thought it was all over. However, everything then worked in our favour and we took advantage. We are obviously overjoyed.”

Denny Berndt – 2026 champion with AVIA W&S Motorsport

“It was an eventful weekend – and I have not yet really taken in what we have achieved. However, that is probably normal in a situation like this. The title was absolute teamwork. We will all celebrate together today. This is the biggest success of my career so far.”