Corvette driver Gounon takes pole position at Zandvoort

• Jules Gounon with best time in Q1 at Zandvoort
• Five different brands in top five positions
• SPORT1 and DAZN will broadcast the race live on Saturday at 1.30pm

Zandvoort: Second pole position of the season in the ADAC GT Masters for Corvette driver Jules Gounon (22, F, Callaway Competition). In a very close qualifying session, the French championship leader beat Audi driver Markus Pommer (26, DEU, Aust Motorsport), who was followed home by Luca Stolz (21, DEU, Mercedes-AMG Team ZAKSPEED) in the Mercedes-AMG. SPORT1 will broadcast the seventh ADAC GT Masters race of the season live and in full at 1.30pm. The race can also be watched online as live stream at sport1.de, DAZN, adac.de/motorsport and on the YouTube channel of the ADAC.

Gounon had already posted his best time of 1.35.704 minutes by the middle of the session. Pommer came very close with a deficit of 42 thousandths of a second, but ultimately, that was not enough to deprive the Corvette driver of his second pole position. Gounon is the first driver in the Super Sports Car League to start from pole position for a second time this year after taking best time last time out at the Red Bull Ring. The current leader in the championship standings will share the Corvette in the race with local driver, Renger van der Zande (31, NL), since his regular team-mate Daniel Keilwitz (27, DEU) has to miss the race due to an injury.

"I never expected to be fastest today," said Gounon, who is now in with an excellent chance of securing the unofficial title of 'half-time' champion in this seventh of 14 races this season. "The team did some terrific work to get the car running so well. I'm very pleased with my second pole position. I posted my lap at exactly the right moment. The two subsequent red flags made it harder for the others to beat my time."

Luca Stolz in the best-placed Mercedes-AMG finished behind Markus Pommer, who just missed P1 by the smallest of margins. Stolz was a mere 0.064 seconds off best time. Fourth place went to local driver Nicky Catsburg (29, NL, BMW Team Schnitzer). However, the BMW M6 driver will be dropped five places down the grid following a penalty in FP1 on the part of team-mate, Philipp Eng (27, A), who is currently second in the rankings. By finishing fifth in the best-placed Lamborghini Huracán, Ezequiel Perez Companc (23, RA, GRT Grasser Racing Team) ensured that five different brands took the leading positions. Sebastian Asch (31, DEU, BWT Mücke Motorsport) completed the Top Six in another Mercedes-AMG.

Tickets for the race weekends are available online at www.adac.de/motorsport.