Qualifying was really exciting with constant changes in the lead. And the four title favourites finally finished in the top four positions. The first qualifying session of the Super Sports Car League at Hockenheim certainly had plenty to offer. By the end of the session, championship leader Robert Renauer was out in front. The Porsche driver, who shares the 911 GT3 R prepared by Precote Herberth Motorsport with Mathieu Jaminet, set the fastest time of 1:38.481 minutes in the final minutes of qualifying, putting him in the best position on the grid, from which to start the race which gets underway at 3:00 pm and will be broadcast live and in full by SPORT1. "Qualifying went really well," said Renauer after securing his fourth pole position overall in the ADAC GT Masters and his first since 2016 at the Nürburgring. "Our timing was great. I had three fairly clear laps and already knew that we would finish up front. I was even faster on the first sector after the last lot of red flags, but then the tyres began to degrade. I'm mega happy. The race will be very exciting with the four main title contenders in the top four places."

Sheldon van der Linde and his brother, Kelvin, who are third in the standings, edged into P3 on the grid literally at the last second with their last lap of 1:38.750 minutes in the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi R8. After his first best time had been declared null and void due to the session being red-flagged following a crash by Porsche driver, Timo Bernhard, the South African managed to keep their title chances alive with his final hot lap. "I was under a lot of pressure to get in a good lap," he said. "And then, it turned into one of the best of my career. I'm very happy and really looking forward to the race."

The Corvette drivers Marvin Kirchhöfer and Daniel Keilwitz (Callaway Competition), who are currently fourth overall in the standings, qualified in third place. "I'm not completely satisfied," said Kirchhöfer, "because the red flags stopped me on what was actually my best lap. The car feels good. I think our strengths lie in the race, which is why we're well placed on the grid." The Mercedes-AMG pairing of Markus Pommer and Maximilian Götz (Mann-Filter Team HTP), who are only four points down on Renauer and Jaminet in the run-up to the last two races of the season, also secured a position on one of the top two rows of the grid with P4. "The car was great. My engineer and I had an idea yesterday about something to try out with set-up, which paid off today," said Pommer. "Unfortunately, I ran a little wide in the Mercedes-Arena on my hot lap, which cost me two or three tenths. I'm very pleased with our grid slot. We can still win the race from there."

Fifth position in qualifying went to the Audi R8 LMS of Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase (BWT Mücke Motorsport).