Christian Klien (39/A) has made full use of his home advantage on his guest appearance in the ADAC GT Masters. The former Formula 1 driver set the fastest lap time of 1:28.865 minutes in 26 degrees Celsius in this afternoon’s second free practice session at the Red Bull Ring.
The Austrian, driving a McLaren 720S GT3 alongside Dennis Lind (29/DK) for the JP Motorsport team, clocked his fastest time on lap 26. “My first impression of the ADAC GT Masters is a very good one. The atmosphere is relaxed, but it is serious business out on the track, and the standard is very high. As the fastest in the final practice session, we are well prepared going into the first qualifying session on Saturday. Then we will see how good we really are,” said Klien.
Thierry Vermeulen (19/NL) and Mattia Drudi (23/I) were second fastest in the #33 Audi R9 LMS GT3 Evo II, 0.114 seconds slower than Klien. Together with JP Motorsport, the Car Collection Motorsport duo were the only other pair to go under 1:29.000 minutes. Shortly before the end of the session, defending champion Christopher Mies (32/Düsseldorf) lapped the 4.318-kilometre circuit in a time of 1:29.025 minutes at the wheel of the #1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. In doing so, he secured third place for the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team. Niklas Krütten (19/Trier) and Ben Green (24/GB) backed up this morning’s third place with another impressive performance, guiding the #10 BMW M4 GT3 to fourth place in FP2. Fifth fastest was another local favourite, Mick Wishofer (22/A) from the Emil Frey Racing team, who shares the cockpit of the #14 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo with Konsta Lappalainen (20/FIN). The fastest time of the day was set by BMW works driver Nicky Catsburg (34/NL), who stopped the clock at 1:28.437 minutes in the #20 BMW M4 GT3 in this morning’s first free practice.