Double pole for the Mamba at the Nürburgring. On Saturday it was Raffaele Marciello (27/I) of Mann-Filter Team Landgraf, championship leader at the halfway point of the season, who went fastest with a new qualifying record at the Nürburgring. On Sunday morning, it was the turn of his partner Maro Engel (36/Monte Carlo) to claim the Pirelli Pole Position Award in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The Mercedes-AMG works driver clocked the fastest time of 1:25.621 minutes on lap ten.
“I feel really comfortable at the Nürburgring and am pleased with this pole position. The car has been fantastic since Thursday. The team has done a great job. It was very close at the top, but the tyres peaked at the end and I was able to get in my flying lap,” said Maro Engel, for whom this was the first pole position in the ADAC GT Masters.
Ben Green (24/GB) of Schubert Motorsport was just 0.075 seconds slower than the pole-sitter. However, this outstanding performance was no more than damage limitation for the young Brit, who was relegated five grid positions in the #10 BMW M4 GT3 for receiving three warnings. The beneficiaries of this penalty are Jules Gounon (27/F) and Fabian Schiller (24/Troisdorf) in the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Drago Racing Team ZVO, and the duo of Elias Seppänen (18/FIN) and Frank Bird (22/GB) from Mann-Filter Team Landgraf in the junior Mamba. The third and fourth-placed pairings from qualifying each move up one position on the grid. Christopher Haase (34/Kulmbach), who secured fifth place shortly before the end of the session in the #28 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Rang, was also unable to fully enjoy his result: He will start from tenth place, having received a penalty in Saturday’s race. That means Jan Marschalkowski (19/Inning) and Luca Stolz (27/Brachbach) in the #8 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, and Jack Aitken (26/GB) and Albert Costa Balboa (32/E) in the #63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo line up in fourth and fifth on the grid.
With track temperatures around 18 degrees, it took several laps to get the tyres up to temperature and really go in search of fast times on Sunday morning at the Nürburgring. Ben Green was the first driver to lay down a marker, setting top times after the first half of the session. The lead then changed hands several times, before Maro Engel secured pole with the Mamba.
Race eight of this season’s ADAC GT Masters gets underway at 13:00. TV station NITRO presents live coverage of the race from 12:30. The action can be followed live on motorsport.tv.
