A mere 26 thousandths of a second made the difference ultimately, as Q1 at the Sachsenring was decided by fractions of a second once again. For much of the half-hour session, it looked like Porsche driver Michael Ammermüller (SSR Performance) would be able to clinch his second pole position of the year. He went into the lead at an early stage with a time of 1.18.872 minutes and stayed there until the final few minutes of the session when Dienst in the red Mercedes-AMG GT3 from DLV Team Schütz Motorsport consigned him to second place, taking the top spot with a 1.18.846. Dienst went back out and did even better, bringing his time down to 1.18.799 minutes but his lap was immediately struck from the timesheets for exceeding track limits. Nevertheless, Dienst was delighted with his first pole position in the ADAC GT Masters since Oschersleben 2019. What makes his performance all the more remarkable is that the Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Dienst and team-mate Philipp Frommenwiler is the only one in the field that has not been fitted with the 2020 Evo kit. But still, Dienst secured the Pirelli Pole Position Award and receives a pair of exclusive Pirelli skis for his efforts.

"The car was mega and I had a lot of fun," said Dienst. "I was absolutely on the limit and almost lost the car at times. I promised team boss Christian Schütz a pole position and am really pleased that I've been able to keep my promise so soon. After posting my first hot lap, I wasn't sure whether it was enough to secure pole, so I went back out and gave it maybe 105 percent. I ran wide briefly, because I couldn't keep the car under control, so the lap was declared null and void. Overtaking isn't easy at the Sachsenring, so I'm hoping I can pull out a gap in the race, hang on to it as Philipp takes over and then we can come home in P1."

Michael Ammermüller and partner Christian Engelhart are in second place in the standings and will be on the front row for the start of Saturday's race. P3 went to Robert Renauer and Sven Müller also in a Porsche; Renauer posted a time of 1:18.953 minutes in the 911 GT3 R prepared by Precote Herberth Motorsport. Philip Ellis and Raffaele Marciello (Knaus-Team HTP-Winward, 1:18.988 mins) finished fourth in the best-placed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo just in front of fellow Mercedes AMG drivers, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel (Toksport WRT).

Championship leaders Patric Niederhauser and Sheldon van der Linde (Rutronik Racing) came eighth on the timesheets in the fastest Audi R8 LMS with a deficit of 0.336 seconds.