Mercedes-AMG dominate opening session at Czech premiere

• Sebastian Asch quickest in ADAC GT Masters FP1 session at Most
• Three more Mercedes-AMGs in next three positions
• Last year's champions Callaway Competition best of the rest

Most: Mercedes-AMG dominated first practice at Most as the ADAC GT Masters made its debut in the Czech Republic. Four of the GT3 sports cars from Stuttgart finished out in front during the one-hour session. Two-time champion Sebastian Asch (31, GER, Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing) was fastest. SPORT1 will broadcast the two Super Sports Car League races live and in full on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm from the Autodrom Most. The races can also be watched online as livestream at sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.

With bright sunshine, temperatures nudging 20 degrees and extremely close racing, the debut weekend of the ADAC GT Masters in Most is certainly going to be very exciting. Sebastian Asch, who shares the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Luca Stolz, set the fastest time of 1:32.360 minutes in the first practice session. "We found a good balance and bolted on a fresh set of tyres into the bargain," said the ADAC GT Masters winner from 2012 and 2015. "The car is now functioning perfectly again following problems with the clutch in testing on Thursday and subsequent loss of driving time. The team have prepared the car really well. Let's see how things continue in the upcoming sessions, but I think we're better placed for tomorrow's qualifying than we were at the season opener in Oschersleben."

Second place went to the Mercedes-AMG of Markus Pommer (27, GER) & Maximilian Götz (32, GER, both MANN-FILTER Team HTP), who were only 45 thousandths of a second down on P1. "I like the track, it's a lot of fun to drive," said Götz. "It really suits the car. The medium-fast sections in Sectors 2 and 3 are especially suited to the Mercedes-AMG. We have a sound basis on which to work. We'll fit fresh tyres for the second session and then see how things go."

The second yellow Mamba fielded by MANN-FILTER Team HTP driven by Indy Dontje (25, NL) & Maximilian Buhk (25, GER) took third place from fellow Mercedes-AMG drivers Patrick Assenheimer (25, GER) & Clemens Schmid (27, A), both AutoArenA Motorsport). Fifth place went to the Corvette C7 GT3-R of Marvin Kirchhöfer (24, GER) & Daniel Keilwitz (28, GER, both Callaway Competition). Just one second covered 16 cars in all during the session.

Three new drivers at Most

There are three changes to report in the ADAC GT Masters line-up following the Oschersleben season opener. Stefan Mücke (36, GER) replaces DTM driver Jamie Green (35, GB) at BWT Mücke Motorsport this weekend in the Audi bearing start number 26. Christer Jöns (30, GER) is back in the Super Sports Car League for the first time since 2016, standing in for Frédéric Vervisch (31, B) at Aust Motorsport, who is double-booked. Ivan Lukashevish (26, RUS) is making his debut in the ADAC GT Masters at Phoenix Racing. The Russian is scheduled to race the #6 Audi for the rest of the season as a regular driver.

Livestream coverage now even more comprehensive

Starting with the Most race weekend, fans can now follow racing from the ADAC GT Masters and the ADAC TCR Germany on YouTube as livestream in both German and English. The new Fan TV will be in action at adac.de/motorsport, plus a German livestream. Racing will also still be available live and in full on Facebook.