Prosperia C Abt driver Markus Winkelhock (32) will start from pole position in Sunday's 100th ADAC GT Masters race. In the ADAC GT Masters premiere at the Slovakia Ring in Slovakia, the ex-Formula 1 driver and FIA GT1 world champion led a trio of Prosperia C Abt Audi R8s not only to pole but also positions two and three. "I wasn't expecting to claim the top spot here, but I seem to have got my flying lap just right," said a delighted Winkelhock after securing his maiden pole in the Super Sports Car League. Meanwhile, Frank Kechele (27) in a Lambda Performance Ford GT was booking the best place on the grid for Saturday. This seventh pole position in his ADAC GT Masters career also hands Kechele the record for the most P1 starts in the history of the ADAC GT Masters.

Ford GT driver Kechele comfortably secures fourth pole of season

In qualifying for the race on Saturday, Frank Kechele claimed his second pole of the 2013 ADAC GT Masters season by a comfortable margin. With his first flying lap, the Ford driver immediately slotted into P2 behind Dutchman Simon Knap (24) in the DB Motorsport BMW Z4 and then dislodged him at the second time of trying. "For a long time now, I haven't been able to describe any of my laps as perfect, but there really was no way I could have improved on this one," said a delighted Kechele. "The track is great fun, and in qualifying, the cool weather played into our hands, because it is in conditions like these that our Ford GT works best." Kechele beat Knap by 0.659 seconds. The second row is made up of Swiss driver Philipp Frommenwiler (24) in a Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911 and defending ADAC GT Masters champion Maximilian Götz (27) in a Polarweiss Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Perfect team performance for Audi outfit Prosperia C Abt Racing

Dark rain clouds over the Slovakia Ring brought the traffic out en masse at the start of qualifying for Sunday's race. Winkelhock clocked the best time at his third attempt, and it stood until the end of the session. Winkelhock's team-mates Christopher Haase (25) and René Rast (26) ensured a perfect team performance for Prosperia C Abt by locking out the front three positions on the grid. Haase, who starts the race alongside Winkelhock from the front row and who shares the cockpit of his Audi with former DTM driver Rahel Frey (27), narrowly missed out on a historic pole for himself. The Audi driver had claimed pole in the very first ADAC GT Masters race in 2007 and was just 0.022 seconds shy of repeating the feat in the 100th race. Behind the Audi trio is fourth-placed Dominik Baumann (20) in his Pixum Team Schubert BMW Z4.

Setback for championship leaders Alessi and Keilwitz

Current leaders Diego Alessi (41) and Daniel Keilwitz (24) in their Callaway Competition Corvette enter the final phase of the campaign on the penultimate race weekend of the season with a major handicap: Alessi skidded into the gravel in qualifying for Race 1 and now has to start from last place on the grid on Saturday. Meanwhile, Keilwitz was booking the P10 slot for Sunday. Robert Renauer (28) in a Tonino powered by Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911, who is currently placed second in the standings, was also out of luck in qualifying: the winner of the previous race at the Lausitzring and his partner Martin Ragginger (25) had to settle for eleventh and 15th on the grid respectively.