The tension in the battle for the ADAC GT Masters championship is ratcheting up. The title contenders dominated Q1 at Oschersleben as they secured the top starting positions for Saturday's race in the Super Sports Car League.

Currently third overall in the standings, the German, Michael Ammermüller, was the fastest in the Porsche 911 GT3 R and thus won the Pirelli Pole Position Award. Ammermüller shares the '911' with Christian Engelhart and took the lead in the final stages of qualifying with a 1:23.240. This is the SSR Performance driver's second pole of the year. His reward for his efforts, the best starting position for this afternoon's race and an exclusive pair of Pirelli skis.

"It could hardly have gone better," said Ammermüller. "We could see yesterday that the car was running well and were able to use that to good advantage today, luckily. We need to make up a few points, so of course, our starting position is just perfect. It's very important to be on pole here, because overtaking is more difficult at Oschersleben than at other tracks. We intend to win this race."

Austrian Max Hofer (Montaplast by Land Motorsport) in the Audi will also be on the front row at the start. He and partner Christopher Haase in fifth overall in the standings have only a slim chance of lifting the title. Unlike their fellow competitors, they went out on track early and led the session with a 1:23.446 for quite a long time. Patric Niederhauser also in an Audi was third in qualifying. The overall leader in the standings posted a time of 1:23.565 minutes. However, Niederhauser and partner Kelvin van der Linde must serve a penalty for breaking rules last time out at the Lausitzring and will start five positions lower down the field.

Title contenders Luca Stolz and Maro Engel are fourth in the standings and also qualified fourth in their Mercedes-AMG. Porsche drivers Alfred Renauer and Sebastian Asch (Precote Herberth Motorsport) finished fifth behind them. Their team-mate, 2018 champion Robert Renauer, is second in the standings and was seventh in the sister car. He is sharing the drive in the '911' with Mathieu Jaminet during this final race weekend.