Nico Bastian made the perfect start to the finale of this season’s ADAC GT Masters at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg. The man from Ludwigsburg, at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Team Joos by Racemotion, set the fastest time of 1:39.893 minutes in Friday morning’s free practice session. BMW driver Ben Green (GBR/Schubert Motorsport) and Benjamin Hites (CHL/GRT Grasser-Racing-Team) in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 completed the top three.
The ADAC GT Masters drivers took to the track for the final free practice of the 2023 season under cloudy skies and with temperatures around 17 degrees Celsius. At the start of the session, the 4.574-kilometre track was still wet. However, it proceeded to dry out over the course of the 45-minute session. Bastian coped best with the unsettled conditions and clocked the fastest time. “We opted for the Pirelli slicks for the whole session. The first laps on the wet track were somewhat complicated. The secret to success in these difficult conditions was to find the perfect line and, above all, the dry spots. I managed to do that. I then headed out on fresh tyres for my fastest lap,” said Bastian, who shares the cockpit of the Joos Porsche with Michael Voos (Vöhringen) at the sixth round of the season.
Second place, over eighth tenths of a second slower than Bastian, went to Green in a BMW M4 GT3. Third fastest was Nürburgring race winner Hites in the Grasser Lamborghini (+0.958 seconds). In fourth place was the championship leader in this season’s ADAC GT Masters, Mercedes-AMG driver Elias Seppänen (FIN/Landgraf Motorsport, +0.969 seconds). Jannes Fittje (Langenhain/Huber Motorsport) took fifth place in another Porsche 911 GT3 R (+0.985 seconds).
Qualifying in the ADAC’s iconic GT series gets underway at 09:00 on Saturday morning. The battle for the best grid positions will be shown on the free YouTube channel @adacmotorsports. TV partner Sport1 is broadcasting race eleven of the season from Hockenheim at 15:45.
