Porsche works driver Mathieu Jaminet came out on top at the end of a close qualifying session in the German GT Championship at the Sachsenring.
France’s Jaminet, who won the ADAC GT Masters in 2018 and lines up alongside defending champion Michael Ammermüller for SSR Performance, set a time of 1:18.426 minutes – just 0.054 faster than Mercedes-AMG driver Igor Waliłko. This was Jaminet’s second Pirelli Pole Position Award after Oschersleben. His reward: three championship points.
“The pole feels really good, particularly on the back of two tough weekends in Zandvoort and at the Lausitzring,” said Jaminet. “It is great to finally be back out in front. We went out early, which was probably one of the keys to the pole position, as it meant we had no traffic. I put together one of my best laps of the season so far, so I am very happy. The pole is very important for the championship, as it allows us to put the opposition under pressure. It is now up to us to take advantage of it. However, we have done the first part of the job.”
Second fastest was Mercedes-AMG driver Waliłko in a GT3 Evo run by the Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing team. The Pole, who recently won the Sunday race at the Lausitzring together with Jules Gounon, produced his best qualifying performance of the season, but was still not entirely satisfied: “That was a great lap, but unfortunately I strayed slightly onto the gravel in the final corner, which probably cost us pole. However, I am still starting from the front row for the first time, and that feels great. We are riding a little wave of success at the moment, so let’s see what we can achieve in the race. We will give it our all.”
Third place in the 20-minute session went to Luca Stolz/Maro Engel from Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT. Stolz clocked a time of 1:18.585 minutes and was followed in fourth place by Mirko Bortolotti/Albert Costa Balboa. Currently third in the championship, they took 1:18.621 minutes to complete a lap of the Sachsenring in the best-placed Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. This was a fine effort from the GRT Grasser Racing Team duo, who had only managed a few laps in Friday’s practice sessions due to a technical issue. Rounding off the top five were championship leaders Ricardo Feller/Christopher Mies from the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team in an Audi R8 LMS.
Race nine of this season’s German GT Championship starts at 16:30. NITRO will be broadcasting live from 16:00.