BMW kicked off round two of the ADAC GT Masters with a strong performance at the Red Bull Ring. In the first free practice, BMW works driver Nicky Catsburg (34/NL) set the fastest time of 1:28.437 minutes at the wheel of the #20 BMW M4 GT3 for Schubert Motorsport. His team-mate and fellow BMW driver Ben Green (24/GB) ended the opening session in third place, behind the impressive Dries Vanthoor (24/B/Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II #29). The top ten super sports cars lapped the 4.318-kilomete track in under 1:29.000 minutes and were separated by just half a second.
In temperatures around 22 degrees Celsius, the drivers got straight down to business at the alpine circuit when FP1 began at 10:25 on Friday. The lead constantly changed hands until Nicky Catsburg, sharing the cockpit with BMW works driver Jesse Krohn (31/FIN), set the fastest time on lap 14. The Montaplast by Land-Motorsport pairing of championship leader Jusuf Owega (20/Cologne) and Dries Vanthoor was just 0.031 seconds slower in second place. Ben Green and Niklas Krütten (19/Trier) rounded off a strong performance by BMW in third place. McLaren enjoyed a successful return to the German GT Championship. Making a guest appearance, former Formula 1 driver Christian Klien (39/A) and Dennis Lind (29/DK) steered the #88 McLaren 720S GT3 to tenth place for JP Motorsport.
