The new BMW pairing of Jesse Krohn and DTM driver António Félix da Costa in a Schubert Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 made an impressive showing on Thursday, setting the pace in the optional test sessions. In high summer temperatures of over 30°C interrupted by a short downpour at lunchtime, more than twenty of the supercars from this year's ADAC GT Masters took the opportunity to get some extra testing in ahead of the upcoming race weekend.

The day's best time (1.28.716 mins) went to the BMW duo of Krohn and da Costa who have linked up for the first time in Austria. For DTM driver da Costa, this marked his Super Sports Car League debut and his first time at the wheel of a GT racing car.

The BMW was fastest in the second and third of the three test sessions after another newcomer took the honours in the morning. Marco Holzer put his name at the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1.28.685 minutes. Starting with the Red Bull Ring fixture, Holzer will be sharing a Bentley Continental GT3 entered by Bentley Team ABT with defending Trophy holder Andreas Weishaupt.

The regular free practice sessions for the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring start on Friday at 12:35.