Klettwitz: Summer conditions with bright sunshine, blue skies and temperatures nudging 30 degrees were the order of the day as the Lausitzring opened its doors to the ADAC GT Masters for the Motorsport Festival. Sebastian Asch (30, DEU, BWT Mücke Motorsport) posted fastest time in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 during the first practice session for the second round of the Super Sports Car League season. Behind him came three Audi R8 LMSs, all within 0.072 seconds of the time set by the leading driver. SPORT1 will broadcast the two ADAC GT Masters races live and in full on Saturday at 12.45 pm and on Sunday at 1.00 pm.

Asch secured his best time of 1.23.077 minutes around ten minutes before the end of the onehour session which was led by Lamborghini driver Christian Engelhart (30, DEU, GRT Grasser Racing Team) for quite a number of laps. “Because of the high temperatures, the track afforded relatively little grip, which is why lap times were slower than last year,” said Asch. “The car felt quite good. We’ve tried out one or two things with setup and have found some good basic settings – even though we still have a couple of ideas that we want to test in second practice.”

At the head of three Audis that crossed the finish line in quick succession, title defendants Connor De Phillippi (23, USA) and Christopher Mies (27, DEU both Montaplast by LandMotorsport) followed Asch home in second place with a deficit of a mere eight thousandths of a second. Filip Salaquarda (33, CZ) and Markus Winkelhock (36, DEU, both BWT Mücke Motorsport) placed third, and Jeffrey Schmidt (23, CH) and Christopher Haase (29, DEU, both Montaplast by Land- Motorsport) were fourth. Rolf Ineichen (38, CH) and team-mate Christian Engelhart took the chequered flag in fifth place in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 while Indy Dontje (24, NL) and Marvin Kirchhöfer (23, DEU both Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport) crossed the line in P6 in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

kfzteile24 organise contest for fans

At the Lausitzring Motorsport Festival, ADAC GT Masters partners kfzteile24 have two VIP tickets for the Hockenheimring season finale up for grabs (22nd – 24th October). Spectators at the track are asked to go to kfzteile24’s stand near where the cars are displayed at ‘Markenwelt’ in the main grandstand, take a selfie with one of the grid girls and upload it to Facebook, using the hashtag #kfzteile24. The exclusive tickets will then be raffled off among all those taking part.

It’s Charly Lamm’s birthday!

Charly Lamm, Team Principal at BMW Team Schnitzer, is celebrating his 62nd birthday this Friday at the Lausitzring. In a career spanning more than 30 years, the Bavarian has won titles and races all over the world. Lamm is hoping that the race weekend at the Lausitzring will turn out just as successful as the season opener when Ricky Collard (20, GB) and Philipp Eng (27, A) won at their first attempt as BMW Team Schnitzer made their ADAC GT Masters debut.

Tickets for the seven race weekends are available online at: www.adac.de/motorsport.