The ADAC GT Masters 2017 kicked off with the first free practice session at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Audi driver Christopher Haase (29, DEU, Montaplast by Land Motorsport) posted the best lap time of the one-hour session. SPORT1 will broadcast the two Super Sports Car League races live and in full length at 1:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

In sunny conditions at the start of practice, Haase in his Audi R8 posted a time of 1.26.977 minutes which remained unbeaten. The 2007 ADAC GT Masters champion, who shares an Audi R8 with Jeffrey Schmidt (23, CH), was very satisfied: “I got a clear lap without any traffic. I was pretty pleased with the car right from the start, so we practised long runs later on and tried out one or two things for the races.”

Following him home in second place with a deficit of a mere 16 thousandths of a second came the car of last year's champions, Connor De Phillippi (23, USA) and Christopher Mies (27, DEU), giving the Audi R8s belonging to Montaplast by Land-Motorsport a one-two lead at the top of the timesheet. BMW team Schnitzer made a promising start in the Super Sports Car League with third place for Ricky Collard (20, GB) and Philipp Eng (27, A) in their BMW M6. Fourth place went to the Lamborghini Huracán of ADAC GT Masters newcomer Ezequiel Perez Companc (22, RA) and Mirko Bortolotti (27, I, both GRT Grasser Racing Team). Another Audi R8, driven by Markus Pommer (27, DEU) and Kelvin van der Linde (20, ZA, both Aust Motorsport), finished in the Top Five. Just one second covered 16 cars in all.

Pirelli with new tyres for the ADAC GT Masters

Pirelli are once again the exclusive tyre partners of the ADAC GT Masters in 2017. Pirelli have developed new tyres for the current season, sized 325/660-18 and 325/680-18 (both front tyres) and 325/705-18 (rear). At an ADAC GT Masters weekend, each team will get three new sets of Pirelli P Zero DHD tyres for the practice sessions, qualis and the races. Pirelli deliver around 600 tyres to each race track every ADAC GT Masters race weekend. The ADAC Formula 4 partner series also uses tyres manufactured by the Italian company.

Four standings will ensure plenty of thrilling battles for titles

There will again be a Junior standings and a Trophy competition in the 2017 ADAC GT Masters apart from the usual drivers' and team rankings.

No less than 17 drivers will contest the Junior standings for competitors under 25 years of age. The names of those fighting it out in the competition which is being staged for a second time are listed below in alphabetical order:

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky (24/S, Audi Sport racing academy)

Patrick Assenheimer (24/DEU, Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport)

Ricky Collard (20/GB, BMW Team Schnitzer)

Indy Dontje (24/NL, Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport)

Ricardo Feller (16/CH, Audi Sport racing academy)

Christopher Friedrich (22/DEU, KÜS TEAM75 Bernhard)

Jules Gounon (22/F, Callaway Competition)

Christopher Höher (19/A, Audi Sport racing academy

Jonathan Judek (17/DEU, ADAC NSA / Attempto Racing Team)

Emil Lindholm (20/FIN, ADAC NSA / Attempto Racing Team)

Dennis Marschall (20/DEU, Aust Motorsport)

Mike David Ortmann (17/DEU, BWT Mücke Motorsport)

Ezequiel Perez Companc (22/RA, GRT Grasser-Racing-Team)

Nikolaj Rogivue (19/CH, Mercedes-AMG Team ZAKSPEED)

Jeffrey Schmidt (23/CH, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport)

Luca Stolz (21/DEU, Mercedes-AMG Team ZAKSPEED)

Nicolai Sylvest (19/DK, Mercedes-AMG Team ZAKSPEED)

The Trophy standings are for amateur drivers. Defending champion Remo Lips (34, CH, MRS GT-Racing) is partnered with Patrick Huisman (50, NL) in the Nissan GT-R. Their rivals are Sven Barth (36, DEU, RWT Racing) in the Corvette and Rolf Ineichen (38, CH, GRT Grasser Racing Team) in the Lamborghini Huracán. Swiss driver Ineichen even managed to take the overall win in the second race at Oschersleben last year.

BMW Team Schnitzer and Schütz Motorsport present new look for 2017

Both BMW Team Schnitzer and Schütz Motorsport presented their new car liveries for the new season for the first time in Oschersleben. During official testing which took place earlier this month at the same venue, both outfits sported a matt-black, carbon fibre design. The BMW M6 is now liveried in the traditional BMW motor sport look from the 1980s with a white base colour and blue-red stripes. Schütz Motorsport have retained matt-black for their Porsche 911, but now with bright yellow stripes.