Sebastian Asch kicks off with fastest time in Mercedes-AMG

• Former champion secures best time in first ADAC GT Masters practice session at Zandvoort
• Three different brands in top three positions
• Third Super Sports Car League meeting outside of Germany this year

Zandvoort: Mercedes-AMG driver Sebastian Asch (32, GER, Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing) set the best lap time in the first ADAC GT Masters practice session at Zandvoort. The former champion from 2012 and 2015 slotted into place in front of the Audi R8 LMS of Max Hofer (19, AUT) and Philip Ellis (25, GB, both Phoenix Racing) and the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Ezequiel Perez Companc (24, RA) and Marco Mapelli (31, ITA, both GRT Grasser Racing Team). SPORT1 will broadcast the two races live and in full from the circuit in the dunes on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm. The races can also be watched online as livestream at sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac. Access to the standing area of the Zandvoort track’s outer ring is free at the ADAC GT Masters with the Dune Ticket which is available at www.circuitzandvoort.nl.

After holding two test sessions on Friday morning, the ADAC GT Masters teams continued with first practice early this afternoon. Asch, who shares the drive in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Luca Stolz (23, GER), went to the top of the timesheets with a best time of 1:37.554 minutes following several changes in the lead. “We tried out a lot of different things with setup in testing this morning too,” said Asch. “I went out on fresh tyres, which went very well. We’ve seen in recent races that qualifying is definitely a weakness of ours, which is why we’ve been focusing on improving setup for qualifying in order to give us a better grid position for the races. In actual fact, the races have always been pretty good for us so far this season, and I hope that we’re now on track here at Zandvoort. The circuit suits the Mercedes-AMG quite well, although of course, practice is never very indicative.”

Audi drivers Max Hofer and Philip Ellis in second place had a deficit of 0.187 seconds on best time with their fastest lap of 1:37.741 minutes. “Practice was great,” said Ellis. “We found a good setting for balance and were fast on fresh tyres, so I’m very pleased. We’ve still got a bit of work to do on race setup, as tyres are put under much more stress at this track.”

The Lamborghini pairing of Perez Companc and Mapelli took P3 from Kelvin van der Linde (22, ZA) and Sheldon van der Linde (19, ZA) in the best-placed Audi R8 LMS from Montaplast by Land-Motorsport. Ricardo Feller (18, CH) and Christopher Haase (30, GER, both BWT Mücke Motorsport), both in Audis, completed the Top Five.

Change of drivers at GRT Grasser Racing Team
Lamborghini works driver Marco Mapelli (31, ITA) is returning to the ADAC GT Masters at Zandvoort. The Italian is at the wheel of the #19 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 prepared by GRT Grasser Racing Team here at the Dutch circuit. Mapelli contested a season in the Super Sports Car League just last year, driving HB Racing’s Lamborghini.

Third race meeting for DTM star, Jamie Green
British driver Jamie Green (36, GB) will have his third ADAC GT Masters race meeting of the year after Oschersleben and Spielberg. The Audi works driver will again share an Audi R8 LMS with Jeffrey Schmidt (24, CH) at BWT Mücke Motorsport.