The Motorsport Festival Lausitzring is under way. Martin Ragginger (28, A, Precote Herberth Motorsport) in the Porsche 911 emerged as the fastest from the two free practice sessions which proved to be extremely competitive with 20 supercars in all finishing within one second of one another on Friday morning. The Lamborghini Huracán of Rolf Ineichen (38, CH) & Christian Engelhart (29, DEU, both GRT Grasser-Racing-Team) also showed strong form. Drivers willl get down to serious business at 3:10 pm this afternoon with qualifying when grid positions for the two races on Saturday and Sunday (both live on free-to-air SPORT1 TV at 1:00 pm) will be decided in two 20-minute sessions.

Teams and drivers had the opportunity to do their testing during two 60-minute free practice sessions in temperatures at the Lausitzring of around 20 degrees with light cloud cover. Martin Ragginger did best in the second session with a time of 1.22.422 minutes which no one was able to beat. "Everything has gone well for us so far," said the Austrian, who shares the Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 with Robert Renauer (31, DEU). "We were very quick on the long run, even on used tyres. Now let's see what happens in qualifying. There aren't too many places to overtake here, so we better make sure that we finish well up the field."

The second and third-fastest practice times were also posted in the second session. The Lamborghini shared by Rolf Ineichen & Christian Engelhart placed second with a deficit of 0.12 seconds – in the first session, Ineichen & Engelhart had been fastest with a 1.22.641. Isaac Tutumlu Lopez (30, E) and Kelvin van der Linde (19, ZA, both Car Collection Motorsport) were third in the Audi R8 LMS, a mere eight thousandths of a second slower. The first session ended with the Porsche 911s of Ragginger & Renauer and David Jahn (25, DEU) and ADAC GT Masters newcomer Matteo Cairoli (20, I, both KÜS TEAM75 Bernhard) in second and third place respectively.

New faces and old friends

With 34 supercars in the field, the line-up for the Lausitzring race weekend is the biggest so far in the current ADAC GT Masters season. Three teams have helped set the new record by beefing up their respective squads with one more car each. GRT-Grasser-Racing team are deploying another Lamborghini Huracán with newcomers Nicolas Pohler (20, Munich) and Mirko Bortolotti (26, I). Schubert Motorsport are fielding a second BMW M6 GT3 with drivers, Niklas Mackschin (21, DEU) and winner of seven ADAC GT Masters races, Claudia Hürtgen (44, DEU), for the first time this season.

As at the Oschersleben season-opener, Callaway Competition arrived at the Lausitzring with a third Corvette C7 for Loris Hezemans (18, NL) and Boris Said (52, USA). Three other teams have announced a change of drivers. David Jahn (25, DEU) in the Porsche 911 prepared by KÜS TEAM75 Bernhard will be partnered by Porsche one-make trophy ace Matteo Cairoli (20, I). The team-mate of Peter Hoevenaars (21, NL ) in the Audi R8 of Montaplast by Land-Motorsport is Frédéric Vervisch (29, B). At kfzteile24 APR Motorsport, Robin Frijns (24, NL) will replace Laurens Vanthoor (25, B) alongside Florian Stoll (34, DEU) at the Lausitzring. Vanthoor is unable to race due to a clash of dates. The Belgian is getting ready for his second outing in the 24-hrs of Le Mans.

Plenty of entertainment at Lausitzring

Nearly 20 hours of racing action on track, plus a varied programme around the circuit – visitors to the Lausitzring Motorsport Festival will have no chance to get bored. Apart from the ADAC GT Masters and the DTM, fans can also watch the ADAC Formula 4, the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland and the Superbike*IDM. Several live pop concerts, parties, autograph-signing sessions, stunt shows, competitions and interview sessions will provide further entertainment for fans.

Live action on TV and in Internet

There will be extensive live coverage of the ADAC GT Masters once again from the Lausitzring race weekend. SPORT1 will broadcast both races on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm on free-to-air TV. Super Sports Car League action will also be available live in the Internet, as both races will feature on SPORT1.de (German commentary) and adac.de/motorsport (English commentary).