The young 24-year-old did not go out on track until around the middle of the session. On his first flying lap, he managed to post a time of 1.28.466 minutes – enough to secure pole position – but he went even faster on his second lap with a 1.28.166 minutes. In the end, he was 0.460 seconds faster than BMW Junior Mikkel Jensen in second place at the wheel of Team Schnitzer’s M6 GT3 BMW. This will be Kirchhöfer’s 18th race and he will be on pole for the first time ever in the ADAC GT Masters. It is also the first pole of the season for last year’s title winners, Callaway Competition.

“It sure feels good,” said Kirchhöfer, who shares the Corvette with six-time winner at the Red Bull Ring, Daniel Keilwitz. “It’s been a little while since I was last out in front. We knew that we would be strong here, so it’s pretty obvious that we have to deliver this weekend at the Red Bull Ring. The team did a great job. Our timing was perfect. My lap came just at the right time. There wasn’t much left in the way of potential. I was on the limit throughout, but it paid off. The race, though, will not be easy. The BMWs will certainly be strong too, and we don’t yet know what the weather will be like.”

While Kirchhöfer set his best time a good seven minutes before the end of the half-hour session, positions behind him changed hands several times during the closing stages. Mikkel Jensen and his partner Timo Scheider took second place from the van der Linde brothers, Sheldon and Kelvin, in the best-placed Audi R8 LMS of Montaplast by Land-Motorsport. Behind them in fourth place came Dennis Marschall and Victor Bouveng in Team Schnitzer’s second BMW M6 GT3. Fifth place went to the Ferrari 488 GT3 of HB Racing, who are contesting a home fixture this weekend with Alfred Renauer and Luca Ludwig. Championship leaders Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet will line up in sixth place on the grid for this fifth ADAC GT Masters race in the Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Precote Herberth Motorsport.