Championship leader Elias Seppänen (FIN), at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Landgraf Motorsport, was in top form in the second qualifying session in the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring. This was the third pole position of the 2024 season for the 20-year-old, who shares the car with Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg). “I am very happy to have taken pole again. Plus, we picked up another three points, which is obviously very important in terms of the title race,” said Seppänen. Behind him in second place was the Ferrari 296 GT3 of the Swiss pairing of Alain Valente and Jean-Luc D´Auria (both Emil Frey Racing). Third place went to Maxime Oosten (NL) and Leon Köhler (Erlenbach am Main) from FK Performance. The BMW duo, currently second in the table, will line up directly behind the championship leaders on the starting grid.
Sunday morning’s second qualifying began in dry conditions at the iconic circuit in the Styrian region of Austria. At ten degrees Celsius, the track temperature was almost twice as high as in the opening qualifying session on Saturday. The improved track conditions meant it did not take the drivers so long to get the Pirelli tyre up to its optimal working window. This was proven at the halfway point of the session by Alexander Schwarzer (D) in a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Fach Auto Tech, who was roughly three seconds faster than the best time from Saturday’s qualifying. With seven minutes remaining, a thrilling battle for pole position unfolded. In the end, it was Seppänen who clocked the fastest qualifying time, completing the 4.318-kilometre circuit in 1:28.764 minutes.
For fans of the ADAC GT Masters watching from home, television partner Sport1 is showing all the action from race ten of the season live from 15:00 on German free-to-air TV. The race will also be streamed live, with German and English commentary, on the free ADAC Motorsport YouTube channel youtube.com/@ADACMotorsports.
