Tim Zimmermann has been unstoppable so far at the Nürburgring. After setting the fastest time of the day on Friday, the driver from the Grasser Racing Team landed his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 on pole position in qualifying for race five of this season’s ADAC GT Masters. The 27-year-old’s time of 1:25.219 minutes in Saturday morning’s session was a new qualifying record. “We’ve done it at last. I am very proud of the team and my performance. We obviously want to win the race. Victory is all that matters now,” said a confident Zimmermann.
At the start of qualifying, Jannik Julius-Bernhart (Bad Brückenau), Alexander Schwarzer (D/Fach Auto Tech) and Nico Hantke (Hürth/Walkenhorst Motorsport) initially used the clear track to get sufficient heat into their Pirelli tyres, with track temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius. Roughly ten minutes into the session, the drivers upped the pace and the lead changed hands on a regular basis. Shortly before the end of the session, Zimmermann set a new qualifying record. In doing so, he surpassed the previous best time, clocked by his team-mate Benjamin Hites (CHL) last year. Zimmermann’s time remained unbeaten and ultimately earned the German/Chilean duo pole position. In second place, just 0.076 seconds slower, was Landgraf Motorsport driver Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. The second row of the grid is firmly in the hands of Haupt Racing Team and its two drivers Finn Wiebelhaus (Obertshausen) and Salman Owega (Cologne), who are also putting their faith in premium manufacturer Mercedes-AMG GT3. Fifth place on the grid is occupied by another Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Marcel Marchewicz (Schwetzingen) at the wheel for the Schnitzelalm Racing team.
When the fifth race of the season gets underway at 15:00, spectators will be treated to the first endurance race in the history of the ADAC GT Masters. Television partner Sport1 will report live from the Nürburgring from 14:45. Saturday’s race is also being streamed live on ADAC Motorsport’s free YouTube channel youtube.com/@ADACMotorsports.
