Match point goes to championship leader: Gounon takes pole position for ADAC GT Masters season finale

• Corvette driver quickest in first qualifying session at Hockenheim
• Tricky grid slots for title rivals Philipp Eng and Sebastian Asch
• SPORT1 will broadcast the race live on Saturday at 1.00 pm

Hockenheim: Championship leader Jules Gounon (22, F, Callaway Competition) was the first to pull out all the stops in the ADAC GT Masters season finale at Hockenheim. The Corvette driver confidently secured pole position for the race on Saturday while his closest title rivals, Philipp Eng (27, A, BMW Team Schnitzer) in the BMW M6 GT3 and Sebastian Asch (31, DEU, BWT Mücke Motorsport) in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 have to be satisfied with positions in the midfield. Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Stolz (22, DEU, Team Zakspeed) will line up next to pole-sitter Gounon, followed by Mathieu Jaminet (22, F, KÜS Team75 Bernhard) in the best-placed Porsche 911. SPORT1 will broadcast the penultimate race of the season race live and in full at 1.00 pm. It can also be watched online as live stream at sport1.de and adac.de/motorsport.

Gounon was the man to beat in qualifying. The Frenchman was already on course to take best time on his very first fast lap when a red flag stopped proceedings. But he was again the man to beat after the restart and posted best time of the session with a 1.37.956. This is Gounon's third pole position of the season. He also set a new ADAC GT Masters qualifying record for Hockenheim. "I'm very satisfied," said the 22-year-old. "This is the first time ever that I've posted a perfect lap. We've often tested here with Callaway Competition, and it's paid off. The result by no means predicts how things will go in the race, but it's always better to start from the front than from the back."

Gounon starts today's race with a lead of 15 points on BMW driver Philipp Eng, whose team-mate, Nick Catsburg (29, NL), qualified the only BMW M6 in the field in P14. Sebastian Asch, who is 27 points down on Gounon, came home in 19th place in the Mercedes-AMG. If Gounon can finish Saturday's race more than 25 points up, then this year's ADAC GT Masters title will be in the bag.

P2 went to Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Stolz with a deficit of 0.375 secs. Next up was Mathieu Jaminet in the best-placed Porsche 911. Title defendant Connor De Phillippi (24, USA, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) still has a chance on paper of successfully defending his title in the Audi R8. Cars from four different marques will line up on the front of the grid in this penultimate round of the season.
Fifth place went to Nicolai Sylvest (20, DK, Team Zakspeed) in another Mercedes-AMG while Porsche driver Robert Renauer (32, DEU, Precote Herberth Motorsport), who won Sunday's race at Hockenheim last year, was sixth.

Tickets for the season finale are available online at www.adac.de/motorsport.