The Mercedes-Benz duo of Andreas Simonsen and Sergey Afanasiev (Polarweiss Racing) got the best start at the Slovakia premiere of the ADAC GT Masters on Friday morning. The Russian-Swedish pair secured the fastest lap time (2:04.546mins) in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 during the first session at the 5.922km circuit. The two Polarweiss Racing drivers used their knowledge of the Slovakia Ring to good effect; Afanasiev/Simonsen won an FIA GT series race at the track four weeks ago.

The Mercedes-Benz duo had a clear lead of 0.296 seconds on the Audi R8 LMS ultra of Rahel Frey/Christopher Haase (Prosperia C Abt Racing). Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap (DB Motorsport) were third in the BMW Z4 GT3 in front of another Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Christopher Mies/René Rast (Prosperia C Abt Racing), who had been in P1 for quite a long time. Prosperia C Abt Racing succeeded in bringing home all three of their Audis in the Top Ten with Christer Jöns/Markus Winkelhock taking the chequered flag in eighth place.

PIXUM Team Schubert also put their two BMW Z4 GT3s in the Top Ten. Max Sandritter/Jörg Müller set the fifth fastest time. Claudia Hürtgen/Dominik Baumann finished tenth.

Frank Kechele/Dominik Schwager (Lambda Performance) were sixth in a Ford GT. Philip Frommenwiler/Mario Farnbacher (Farnbacher Racing) were ninth in the fastest of the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. Championship leaders Diego Alessi/Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition) took P11 in the Corvette.

Team Geyer & Weinig EDV - Schütz Motorsport miss Slovakia premiere

Team Geyer & Weinig - Schütz Motorsport decided not to take part in the seventh weekend of the ADAC GT Masters at the Slovakia Ring. In view of the technical difficulties of recent weeks, plus the damage to the Porsche 911 GT3 R after the race at the Lausitzring, the team intend to use the time to continue working on the car. They aim to be back at full strength for the ADAC GT Masters season finale at the Hockenheimring but with a different driver pairing. The ADAC GT Masters overlaps with the Porsche Carrera Cup, and so, Schütz Motorsport will release Christian Engelhart, who is third in the Carrera Cup standings and has a good chance of securing the title. Frenchman Nicolas Armindo will line up in his place at the Hockenheimring.

Team boss Christian Schütz: "Giving backword and missing a fixture is never easy, but we cannot be sure that our car will be competitive again by the weekend, which is why we have decided to take this step in consultation with our partners. We will now concentrate on the season finale at the Hockenheimring. We want to achieve a decent result going into the winter break after all the problems we have had. Unfortunately, Christian will not be at the finale, as we don´t want to get in the way of his championship chances in the Carrera Cup. Still, we would be really pleased to see him lift the title."