Friday’s fastest practice lap in the ADAC GT Masters in the Dutch town of Zandvoort came courtesy of Sandro Holzem (21/Polch), who stopped the clock at 1:35.689 minutes. The Schubert Motorsport driver and his twin brother and team-mate Juliano completed a total of 26 laps in the afternoon session. Their BMW M4 GT3 Evo set the fastest time shortly before the chequered flag was waved.
“We tried a lot of things with our long run set-up, so we should be well prepared for Saturday,” said Holzem. “There was an awful lot of sand on the track in the morning session, and therefore little grip. That improved significantly in the afternoon, and the wind is not so strong that it is constantly blowing new sand onto the asphalt. However, the high temperatures will be a challenge for everyone, when it comes to the tyres and tyre pressures.”
Circuit Zandvoort welcomed the ADAC GT Masters drivers with beautiful summer weather – glorious sunshine, 25 degrees air temperature and 45 degrees track temperature. Another to take advantage of these fine conditions was Jamie Day (GBR/20/Comtoyou Racing), who set the second-fastest time of the day in his Aston martin Vantage GT3 Evo, just 0.283 seconds off Holzem’s best time. Rounding out the top three was Kiano Blum (19/AUT/Haupt Racing Team), whose Ford Mustang GT3 came up 0.376 seconds short of the fastest time.
The fourth-fastest man on Friday was Tim Zimmermann (29/Langenargen/FK Performance Motorsport) in a BMW M4 GT3 Evo. He set a time of 1:36.092 minutes in the cooler morning session, making him 0.044 seconds faster than guest starter Alexey Nesov (22/Pure Racing) in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Completing the top six was Felix Hirsiger (28/CHE/Liqui Moly Team Engstler Motorsport) in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2. The championship leader was happy with his day’s work. “We got a good feeling for qualifying today, and it is looking really good. We still have a few things to adjust before the race,” said Hirsiger. “We would be happy with a top-five result in qualifying on Saturday. The primary objective is to score points and compete with our rivals in the championship.”
