The former FIA WEC champion and Le Mans winner partnering Kévin Estre clocked a fastest time of 1:18.947 minutes on the undulating 3.64km Sachsenring to outperform Audi driver Sheldon van der Linde by a margin of 0.04 seconds. Bernhard, who is contesting his first season in the Super Sports Car League as a driver for his own KÜS Team75 Bernhard outfit, displaced the South African at the top of the timesheet two thirds of the way through the half-hour session, thus taking his first pole position in the race series.
"That's the result that a) we really wanted and b) gives us a lift and boosts our motivation," said Bernhard, after becoming the eleventh pole-sitter in the eleventh ADAC GT Masters race of the season. "Our ADAC GT Masters campaign did not get off to the best of starts, but we've worked hard and steadily improved. To qualify on pole, everything has to go just right, and today everything did go right. Obviously, if you start from first place, you also want to win."
During the technical scrutiny after qualifying, a breach of the ADAC GT Masters technical regulations was established. It was found that the gurney flap was attached to the rear wing with tape, which does not comply with clarification 02/2018 to the regulations. The qualifying result was then nullified. But KÜS Team75 Bernhard have since appealed the decision, which means that Bernhard and Estre will indeed start from pole. The number 18 sister car was found to have breached the same rule. In Adrien de Leener and Klaus Bachler's case, the team decided not to challenge the ruling, and they will therefore start from the rear of the grid.
Van der Linde had already set his best time of the day (1:18.987 minutes) after five minutes but ultimately had to settle for second place. "We want to get our first win of the season at last," said brother Kelvin van der Linde, with whom he shares the car. "The Sachsenring suits the Audi, and it's going to be much more difficult to get a win on the final weekend at Hockenheim which isn't quite as accommodating to our car."
Third place went to the Mercedes AMG of Nicolai Sylvest and Kim-Luis Schramm, who drive for Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing. Starting alongside on the second row of the grid will be fellow Mercedes drivers Indy Dontje and Maximilian Buhk of Mann-Filter Team HTP.
On the third row will be Mikkel Jensen and Timo Scheider of BMW Team Schnitzer in the best of the BMW M6 GT3s and the Audi R8 LMS of Jeffrey Schmidt and Stefan Mücke (BWT Mücke Motorsport).
Qualifying was generally disappointing for the main contenders in the title chase. The Mercedes-AMG entered by Mann-Filter Team HTP and driven by current championship leaders Markus Pommer and Maximilian Götz will be starting from P13, while their closest pursuers, the Porsche pairing of Robert Renauer and Mathieu Jaminet (both Precote Herberth Motorsport), are relegated to the end of the field for the same breach of the regulations as the two Bernhard Porsches. Third-placed Marvin Kirchhöfer and Daniel Keilwitz in the Callaway Corvette qualified 16th.