Unlike many of his fellow competitors, the German went out at an early stage in the half-hour session and set a best time of 1.21.867 minutes. After that, the Mercedes-AMG driver had a nerve-wracking wait, but it was worth it. He remained in the lead and secured Toksport WRT's very first pole position. As for Stolz, this was his sixth pole in the ADAC GT Masters and his first in over three years.

"Things could hardly have begun better," said a very happy Stolz, who shares the car with Maro Engel. "We are delighted to be starting the team's first full season in the ADAC GT Masters from pole position. We decided to go out early, because we noticed yesterday that the track was getting dirty very quickly. We were rewarded for what we observed, even though it was nerve-wracking to watch the other drivers from the pits. Now of course, we intend to win the race, for sure!"

Stolz was followed home by two young Audi drivers in a surprising turn of events. 20-year-old Maximilian Paul from T3 HRT Motorsport in P2 qualified on the front row for the first time. Paul, who shares the R8 LMS with Dutchman, Niels Langeveld, moved into second place in the closing seconds of the session, only missing pole position by 43 thousandths. "We never expected that," he said. "We've worked hard during the past few weeks, so now, of course, we are very pleased with the result. The most important thing was to get a good lap today, because we know that the Audi has potential. It's nice to be in front. We intend to go for it now." Also driving an Audi, Charles Weerts from Team WRT, the youngest in the field aged just 19, was third, a mere 42 thousandths slower. The Belgian shares the R8 LMS with works driver, Dries Vanthoor.

Three Porsches came next. Driving a 911 GT3 R, Alfred Renauer/Sebastian Asch (Precote Team Herberth) took P4 from Michael Ammermüller/Christian Engelhart (SSR Performance) and Robert Renauer/Sven Müller in the second 911 prepared by Precote Team Herberth.

Defending champions Patric Niederhauser and Kelvin van der Linde in the Rutronik Racing Audi will be ninth on the grid for their first race of the season at 1.05 pm.