Marcel Marchewicz set a time of 1:48.879 minutes at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg to secure his first pole position in the ADAC GT Masters in qualifying for the penultimate race of the 2024 season. The Schnitzelalm Racing driver produced the fastest lap in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 and celebrated his maiden pole in the iconic GT championship. “I am mega happy to start the race from pole position. I only live a few kilometres from the circuit, so there are a lot of family members and friends here. The support gave me an extra boost of motivation. We will obviously do our best to be able to celebrate our first victory at the end of the race,” said Marchewicz after qualifying.
The drivers were greeted by a track that was still damp in places, as they headed out for the penultimate qualifying of the season. Initially, only a handful of cars took to the 4.574-kilometre track. This all changed shortly before the end of the first half of the session, when guest starter Marchewicz set the first benchmark. However, the local favourite was not done yet, and proceeded to improve his time another twice as the session progressed. Despite the opposition’s best efforts, nobody was able to knock the Mercedes-AMG driver off top spot. Starting alongside Marchewicz in second place will be championship leader Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Landgraf Motorsport. Second place in qualifying allowed him to extend his lead at the top of the table from 29 to 31 points. Completing the top three was last year’s champion Salman Owega (Cologne) from Haupt Racing Team in another Mercedes-AMG GT3. Fourth place went to the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Johannes Kapfinger (Passau/Team Joos by Twin Busch), ahead of Max Reis (Ramstein) from Haupt Racing Team, who ended the session in fifth place in his Mercedes-AMG GT3. Maxime Oosten (NL) and Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main) endured a disappointing qualifying: the duo currently second in the championship are battling for the title with Seppänen and Kalender, but could do no better than eleventh place in qualifying and now face an uphill battle in the opening race.
For all ADAC GT Masters fans following the season finale from home, television partner Sport1 is reporting live from Hockenheim from 15:00. The free livestream on the ADAC Motorsport YouTube channel, youtube.com/@ADACMotorsports, brings thrilling racing to your mobile device and is available with commentary in German and English.
