Thrilling climax to the battle for pole position: Salman Owega (Cologne) posted the fastest time in qualifying for the ADAC GT Masters on his final attempt. The Mercedes-AMG driver from Landgraf Motorsport took 1:18.688 minutes for his flying lap of the 3.645-kilometre Sachsenring. Benjamin Hites (CHL/GRT Grasser-Racing-Team) joins him on the front row of the grid in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 when race seven of the season gets underway at 15:15.
With perfect conditions and 17 degrees Celsius on Saturday morning, a real thriller unfolded at the iconic circuit in Saxony. Hites looked set to take pole position. However, with time running out, Owega managed to jump ahead of him and secure first place on the grid. “I did not really get the tyres up to the right temperature at first. I knew I had to improve, so there was a lot of pressure on me. However, everything came together in the end on that lap. I like the Sachsenring with its fast and flowing corners. Overtaking is pretty difficult, which makes pole position all the more important,” said 18-year-old Owega, who picked up his second Pirelli Pole Position to add to the one he won at the Norisring.
Hites topped the time sheet for much of the 20-minute session. However, he eventually had to settle for second place, 0.156 seconds short of the fastest time. The third-best lap on the undulating track in Hohenstein-Ernstthal came courtesy of Jannes Fittje (Langenhain/Huber Motorsport) in a Porsche 911 GT3 R (+0.424 seconds). Fourth place went to Alain Valente (CH/Haupt Racing Team) in the second Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the top five (+0.427 seconds). Finn Gehrsitz (Stuttgart) was fifth. The championship leader from Team Joos by Racemotion ended the session 0.6 seconds off the pace in his Porsche 911 GT3 R.
TV partner Sport1 is showing the first race after the summer break live on free-to-air TV from 15:00. The seventh race of the season will also be streamed live on the free YouTube channel @adacmotorsports.
