Lamborghini driver Bortolotti starts season with best time

• Bortolotti quickest in FP1
• ADAC GT Masters season opener in Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
• SPORT1 will broadcast both races from first round live

Oschersleben: The winter break is over as the ADAC GT Masters got its twelfth season underway with first practice in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti (28, I, ORANGE1 by GRT Grasser) set best time in the session. SPORT1 will broadcast the two races from the first round live and in full on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm. Racing can also be watched online as livestream at sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.

Bortolotti, who shares the Huracán GT3 with Andrea Caldarelli (28, I) and was outstanding during official testing in Oschersleben at the end of March, achieved his best time of 1:23.911 minutes early on in the session. "What a great start to the season! It's good to be back racing again," said the Italian. "I'm pleased with my best time. We'll continue to prepare for the rest of the weekend in the second session. I always love it in Oschersleben. I really like the track."

The Mercedes-AMG of Markus Pommer (27, DEU) and Maximilian Götz (32, DEU, both MANN-FILTER Team HTP) came home in second place just 0.174 seconds behind the Lamborghini works driver, followed by Alessio Picariello (24, B) and Christopher Mies (28, DEU) for Montaplast by Land-Motorsport in their Audi R8 LMS. With their personal best time of 1.24.112 minutes, they were exactly 49 thousandths of a second faster than team-mates Sheldon (18,) and Kelvin van der Linde (21, both ZA). The new Ferrari 488 GT3 prepared by HB Racing and driven by Dominik Schwager (41, DEU) & Luca Ludwig (29, DEU) completed the Top Five.

The session was stopped for quite a time so that repairs to the crash barriers could be carried out following a contact by Lamborghini driver Rolf Ineichen (39, CH, GRT Grasser Racing Team).

New programme of highlights on n-tv

n-tv will show highlights from this season's ADAC GT Masters and ADAC Formula 4 race weekends in a new flagship production, PS - ADAC GT Masters, a 30-minute programme, featuring a round-up of all the important bits from the Super Sports Car League and from the ADAC high-speed school. PS - ADAC GT Masters goes out for the first on Saturday, April 21st at 9:30 am and will be repeated April 22nd at 7:30 am.

Special attractions for fans at Oschersleben

The season opener of the ADAC GT Masters in the Motorsport Arena is well worth a visit even away from the action out on the racetrack. Fans can take a look at the pits used by the 23 racing teams during the two pit walks to be held on Saturday, 10:15 - 10: 45 am and on Sunday, 10:45 - 11:15 am while autograph hunters will be out in force on Saturday, 3:45 - 4:15 pm, for Meet the Drivers in front of ADAC Hospitality. Also, a new TV service is being introduced for fans at the track with giant video screens around the circuit, showing background to events, interviews and highlights.