Ideal start for Emil Frey Racing: Franck Perera (38/F) secured the first pole position of the season on Saturday at the opening round of the ADAC GT Masters in Oschersleben. In doing so, he ensured his team enjoyed a perfect debut in the German GT Championship. The works driver set the fastest time of 1:22.688 minutes at the wheel of the #19 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo – a new ADAC GT Masters qualifying record at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
Together with team-mate Arthur Rougier (22/F), the Frenchman will start from the front of the grid when the race gets underway at 13:00. “I am very happy with the pole. We did not know exactly how we would get on, but it was clear to me that we have a lot of potential. My fastest lap was not 100% perfect, there is still more to come. It is important to be in contention and pick up points from the word go. That is motivating the whole team.”
Qualifying was red flagged with just three minutes remaining. Frank Bird (22/GB) crashed, and the Englishman’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 had to be recovered from the track. The session restarted six minutes later, but only left the drivers enough time for one lap, on which to significantly improve their times. Second place, 0.201 seconds off the pole time, went to Jusuf Owega (20/Cologne), who shares the cockpit of the #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with reigning champion Ricardo Feller (21/CH). “I spent a while getting heat into my tyres, then really pushed after four laps. Unfortunately, I did not get the exit from the final corner quite right, otherwise it could have been better. After the stoppage, I had too little time to push hard again. However, I will be doing that in the race,” said the man from Cologne, who drivers for the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team.
Joel Sturm (20/Brühl) was third-fastest round the 3.667-kilometre circuit in the #22 Porsche 911 GT3 R. He and partner Sven Müller (30/Bingen) start from the second row of the grid for the Allied-Racing team. “There was more in it for us, but I had problems with traffic and was held up a little. We will now attack hard in the race,” promised the 20-year-old. Starting alongside him in fourth place are the best-placed Mercedes drivers – Jonathan Aberdein (24/ZA) and Raffaele Marciello (27/I) of Mann-Filter Team Landgraf in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo #48. Fifth place on the grid is occupied by another Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo – the number 14 Emil Frey Racing car, with Konsta Lappalainen (20/FIN) and Mick Wishofer (22/A) at the wheel.
