It doesn’t get any more exciting: Championship leader Ricardo Feller secured pole position for Saturday’s race at the final weekend of this season’s ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring – but his closest rivals will be queuing up behind him.
The top five in the overall standings will all start from within the front six places on the grid. The quintet of title contenders was led by Audi driver Feller, who won the Pirelli Pole Position Award for the third time this season, and with it three valuable points for himself and his partner Christopher Mies. Feller first moved to the top of the timings towards the end of the 20-minute qualifying session, with a time of 1:26.873 minutes. He then went even faster, with a 1:26.688-minute lap, which proved good enough to secure pole.
“A perfect qualifying,” said Feller. “The three points are very important in the title race, as it is extremely close at the top of the table. The key to the pole was getting the tyres up to temperature. It was not easy, particularly with the front tyres. The race will be very exciting, with our rivals for the title right behind us. I am looking forward to it.”
Luca Stolz and Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT), who are currently second in the overall standings, will start next to Feller and Mies on the front row. Stolz was just 0.072 seconds slower than the pole-sitter. Mirko Bortolotti, who also comes into the season finale with title aspirations in fifth place, was a further 0.011 seconds back in third place. The Italian again shares the Huracán GT3 Evo of the GRT Grasser Racing Team with fellow Lamborghini works driver Marco Mapelli at the final weekend.
Sven Müller and Robert Renauer (Precote Herberth Motorsport) were fourth in the best-placed Porsche, followed in fifth place by the duo currently fourth in the table - Raffaele Marciello and Maximilian Buhk in the Mercedes-AMG run by Mann-Filter Team Landgraf – HTP/WWR. Marciello’s fastest lap time was 1:26.836 minutes. Starting from sixth place will be Mathieu Jaminet/Michael Ammermüller (SSR Performance), who lie third in the championship in their Porsche. The SSR Performance duo was just 0.172 seconds off the pole time.
The penultimate race of the ADAC GT Masters season gets underway at 15:30. NITRO will be broadcasting live from 14:30.