The Montaplast by Land-Motorsport laid down a clear statement of intent on Friday at the DEKRA Lausitzring. Having seen Jusuf Owega (20/Cologne) end the morning’s first free practice in first place, his partner Ricardo Feller (22/CH) matched the feat in session two in the afternoon. The reigning German GT champion set the fastest lap of 1:21.853 minutes in the #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. In doing so, he also clocked the fastest lap time of the day.
“The time was good. However, I would prefer to be the fastest on Saturday and Sunday, and hope we can repeat today’s performance. Jusuf was extremely strong this morning. The car suits him and we are both driving with the same set-up, which is a big advantage in the ADAC GT Masters. 0.178 seconds slower than Feller, in second place, were fellow Audi drivers Patric Niederhauser (30/CH) and Luca Engstler (22/Wiggensbach) from Rutronik Racing in the #15 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. Maximilian Paul (22/Dresden) impressed on his home track. The local favourite, who shares the cockpit of the #71 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Paul Motorsport with Marco Mapelli (35/I), set his fastest time on lap eleven and ended FP2 in third place. Jesse Krohn (31/FIN) and Nicky Catsburg (34/NL) improved substantially on the morning session to finish in fourth place for Schubert Motorsport in the #20 BMW M4 GT3. Behind him, Salman Owega (17/Cologne) and Christopher Haase (34/Kulmbach) in the #28 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II rounded off the strong performance of Audi and the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team in fifth place.
The times in the second session were a little faster than those of FP1 in the morning. The top 19 drivers were separated by just one second. The serious business begins on Saturday morning for the riders at round five of the German GT Championship. The first qualifying session at the Lausitzring begins at 08:45. Race one starts at 13:00. TV partner NITRO will broadcast live from Lusatia from 12:30.
