What a start to the ADAC GT Masters for Porsche driver Mathieu Jaminet (22, F)! In the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, the KÜS Team 75 Bernhard driver secured pole position for the race on Saturday which will be broadcast live and in full on SPORT1 at 1:00 pm.
In an exciting session, the lead changed hands several times during the last few minutes, until finally Jaminet, who shares the Porsche 911 with Michael Ammermüller (31, GER), went to the top of the timesheets. The Frenchman set a new qualifying record for the ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben with a 1:26.165.
“This is the best way to start the season, first qualifying, first pole position,“ said a happy Jaminet. “We certainly expected to place among the front-runners, but not to get pole position. My lap was almost perfect. I'm really looking forward to the race.”
Klaus Bachler (24, A), another Porsche driver, also qualified on the front row with a deficit of a mere 65 thousandths of a second on Jaminet. The Austrian, who was quickest in practice on Friday, drives for Schütz Motorsport, along with Alex Macdowall (26, GB). The Corvette pairing of Jules Gounon (22, F) and Daniel Keilwitz (27, GER, both Callaway Competition) secured the third slot on the grid in front of the best-placed Audi R8 of Markus Pommer (27, GER) and Kelvin van der Linde (20, ZA, both Aust Motorsport). Placing fifth just behind them came Connor De Phillippi (23, USA) and Christopher Mies (27, GER, both Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) in another Audi.
Indy Dontje (24, NL) and Marvin Kirchhöfer (23, GER), both driving for Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport, finished sixth-fastest. However, the two Mercedes-AMG GT3 drivers have a ten-place grid penalty for overtaking under the red flag in the second practice session. P7 went to the Audi of Christopher Haase (29, GER) and Jeffrey Schmidt (23, CH, both Montaplast by Land Motorsport). Robert Renauer (32, GER) and Sven Müller (25, GER, both Precote Herberth Motorsport) took P8 in the Porsche 911 from Luca Stolz (21, GER) and Luca Ludwig (27, GER, both Mercedes-AMG Team ZAKSPEED), who placed ninth. Ricky Collard (20, GB) and Philipp Eng (27, A, both BMW Team Schnitzer) completed the Top Ten in the only BMW M6 GT3 in the field. Just 0.4 seconds covered the top-ten cars in this Saturday's quali.
The first ADAC GT Masters race of the season starts today at 1:15 pm. SPORT1 will cover the opener live, starting at 1:00 pm.
Tickets for the seven race weekends are available online at: www.adac.de/motorsport.