Christopher Mies (33/Düsseldorf) made a good start to the penultimate round of the ADAC GT Masters at the Sachsenring. The reigning champion in the #1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II went fastest in Friday morning’s practice session with a time of 1:18.214 minutes. Coming on the back of his first win of the season at the Lausitzring, his performance in FP1 underlined the fact that Mies and his partner Tim Zimmermann (26/Langenargen) will be a force to be reckoned with again in Saxony. The Emil Frey Racing duo of Jack Aitken (26/GB) and Albert Costa Balboa (32/E) took second place, 0.231 seconds slower, in the #63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. Third place went to fellow Lamborghini drivers Maximilian Paul (22/Dresden) and Marco Mapelli (35/I) in the #71 Paul Motorsport car. Christian Engelhart ended his first session together with Ayhancan Güven (24/TR) in the #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R in fourth. Franck Perera (38/F) and Arthur Rougier (22/F) of Emil Frey Racing rounded off the strong Lamborghini display in fifth place.
Track temperatures were as low as 8.4 degrees when the drivers headed out onto the 3.645-kilometre Sachsenring for the first free practice session at 08:40 on Friday morning. Porsche driver Christian Engelhart soon managed to get his tyres up to temperature and set his fastest time, which was ultimately good enough for fourth place, in the early stages of the one-hour session. The three drivers ahead of him produced their fastest laps later on. Christopher Mies secured first place on his 30th lap, while Albert Costa Balboa and Marco Mapelli put down their top times on lap 29 and 27 respectively. FP2 at the penultimate round of the German GT Championship at the Sachsenring gets underway at 13:15 on Friday afternoon.
