Finn Wiebelhaus (19/Obertshausen/Haupt Racing Team) set the fastest time of 1:26.305 minutes in ADAC GT Masters practice at the Nürburgring on Friday. The Ford Mustang GT3 driver was 0.098 seconds faster than Moritz Wiskirchen (22/Euskirchen/SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm) in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. “The car feels really good. We made good progress in the right direction in the test sessions,” said a happy Wiebelhaus. “The lap was really great. We did a qualifying simulation, and it worked superbly. We hope to finish as high up the podium as possible at the weekend, in order to score valuable points and make up ground in the championship.”
The two practice sessions took place in roughly 16 degrees and under largely overcast skies. Wiskirchen clocked the fastest lap time in Free Practice 1 and his time of 1:26.403 minutes was enough to put him second behind Wiebelhaus at the end of the day. “I am very happy with my result,” said Wiskirchen. “We tried out a few things and are in a good place ahead of qualifying on Saturday. Even if it rains during the race, we are ready.”
Nico Hantke (21/Hürth/Scherer Sport PHX) completed the top three. The Audi racer set his fastest lap in the morning session and slotted in above Leo Pichler (23/AT/Razoon – more than racing) on the timings sheet. The championship leader was fourth fastest in his Porsche 911 GT3 R. Rounding out the top five was Juliano Holzem (21/Polch/Schubert Motorsport) in a BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
Pichler was the only driver able to break the dominance of the local boys at the Nürburgring. With Haupt Racing Team from Drees, Wiskirchen from Euskirchen, Hantke from Hürth, his team Scherer Sport PHX Audi from Meuspath, and the Holzem brothers from Polch, four of the top five come from the immediate vicinity of the Nürburgring.
The first qualifying session starts at 09:35 on Saturday and can be seen live at youtube.de/ADACMotorsports. The opening endurance race at the Nürburgring gets underway at 16:10, and is streamed live and free of charge on Sport1.de, Joyn, ServusTV ON and Youtube. A full replay of the race will be shown on Sky Sport at 22:00.
