Juliano Holzem (21/Polch/Schubert Motorsport) produced Friday’s lap in the ADAC GT Masters at the Salzburgring. At the wheel of a BMW M4 GT3 Evo, he set the fastest time of 1:25.094 minutes on a wet track in Free Practice 1. That time remained unbeaten in the afternoon’s practice session. “The car was running well and it was really enjoyable out there. The track has a lot of grip in the wet, because there is less rubber on the surface than at other circuits,” Holzem explained. “It is going to be an exciting race, but driving is generally great fun here anyway. We largely stuck with the same set-up as we developed during the tests, and did not make any major adjustments for today’s rain.”
Making its first appearance on the ADAC GT Masters calendar, the Salzburgring greeted the teams and drivers with 14 degrees and persistent rain, which varied in intensity across the two practice sessions. With sunny weather and temperatures around 25 degrees forecast for the weekend, many teams only did a limited number of laps and pit stop practices. Behind Holzem, Simon Connor Primm (20/Großschirma/Paul Motorsport) set the second-fastest time in FP1. He was just 0.039 seconds off the top time in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Primm actually appears twice towards the top of Friday’s timing sheet. He clocked the fastest time of 1:25.775 minutes in the afternoon session – the fourth fastest lap of the day.
Slotting in between them was Finn Wiebelhaus (19/Obertshausen/Haupt Racing Team). 0.0484 seconds off Holzem’s time, the championship leader was third fastest in his Ford Mustang GT3 on Friday. Rounding out the top five was Emil Gjerdrum (18/NOR/ Liqui Moly Team Engstler by GRT) in another Lamborghini.
Qualifying takes place at 10:30 on Saturday and will be broadcast live at youtube.com/adacmotorsports. The 80-minute endurance race follows at 14:50 and will be streamed live on Sport1.de, Joyn, ServusTV ON and Youtube.
