Ludwig, who is sharing HB Racing’s Ferrari 488 GT3 with Sebastian Asch for the first time this season, set the benchmark figure of 1:24.533 minutes in sunny conditions. “Of course, our lap time doesn’t mean much,” said Ludwig. “But it’s a great start and makes you feel good. It’s been a while since ether of us raced a car, so it’s a big boost to the confidence to be on top. We’ll now have to wait and see how the next sessions go.”

P2 in the session that lasted one hour and 50 minutes went to the best-placed Audi R8 LMS fielded by HCB-Rutronik Racing and driven by Carrie Schreiner and Dennis Marschall, who were a mere 0.074 seconds adrift. They were followed home by the Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R of Markus Pommer and Marvin Kirchhöfer in third place with a time of 1:24.702 minutes.

Two more Audi R8 LMS GT3s completed the Top Five with Max Hofer and Christopher Mies taking P4 for Montaplast by Land-Motorsport from Jeffrey Schmidt and Christopher Haase in the supercar prepared by BWT Mücke Motorsport. The field was very evenly matched during the session, as just one second covered 19 cars.

Thirty vehicles in all fielded by 19 teams are taking part in testing at Oschersleben. There are three more sessions to follow on Monday and two on Tuesday.