Maximilian Günther kicks off second half of season with double pole

• Thrilling scrap for pole between Mücke Motorsport drivers Maximilian Günther and Alessio Picariello
• All three Neuhauser Racing drivers in Top Ten for their team’s home race
• Red Bull junior Beitske Visser on third row
• ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Günther: “Double pole for the second time in a row, it’s incredible”

Spielberg – Maximilian Günther (16, Germany, Mücke Motorsport) has secured the best possible grid position for the opener of the second half of the Formel ADAC season. The ADAC Sports Foundation protégé beat off strong competition to secure pole position in the first of three races in Spielberg during qualifying at Austria’s Red Bull Ring. “It was a great qualifying, because I kept on improving and implemented everything that had been discussed beforehand in brilliant fashion,” said the Mücke Motorsport rookie.

Günther is also on pole in Sunday morning’s second race at 9:10am for which grid positions are determined from the second fastest lap times in qualifying. Just last weekend at the Nürburgring, Günther also secured pole position in each of the weekend’s first two races.

Close scrap down to thousandths of a second

Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring was one of the most exciting affairs of the season so far. Alessio Picariello (19, Belgium, Mücke Motorsport) posted best time in qualifying towards the middle of the session and stayed in front for quite a spell. With just six minutes to go, however, Günther relegated the championship leader to second place. The two Mücke Motorsport team-mates fought a thrilling battle for pole, and at times were only a thousandth of a second apart. On his final flying lap, rookie Günther piled on the pressure yet again to achieve a personal best time of 1:36.808 minutes and a lead of 0.131 seconds on Picariello.

The Belgian driver covered the 4.326km track in Styria in 1:36.939 minutes on his hot lap and had to settle for P2 on the grid. The battle for places on the second row also went to the wire. Jason Kremer (18, Germany, Schiller Motorsport) appeared to have grid position 3 in the bag; however, Ralph Boschung (15, Switzerland, KUG Motorsport) improved his lap times with every lap and ultimately consigned ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Kremer to P4.

Neuhauser Racing trio in top ten

Nicolas Beer (17, Denmark, Neuhauser Racing) took P5 on the grid from Beitske Visser (18, Netherlands, Lotus) in his Neuhauser Racing team’s home race. This is also a special race weekend for the young Dutch girl. She is the most successful female driver ever to line up in the Formel ADAC and was made a member of Red Bull’s junior squad earlier this year. She intends to impress with good results at the circuit that is located near the Red Bull headquarters.

The two Neuhauser Racing drivers Stefan Riener (18, Austria, Neuhauser Racing) and Marvin Dienst (16, Germany, Neuhauser Racing) secured grid positions 7 and 8, so all three Neuhauser racing drivers will be among the top ten on the grid on home turf. Lotus dominate the fifth row of the grid. Mikkel Jensen (18, Denmark, Lotus) and Indy Dontje (20, Netherlands, Lotus) completed the Top Ten.

The ADAC is again providing a live stream for all three races at the Red Bull Ring, available freely online from the ADAC motorsports official website at www.adac.de/motorsport. The first race begins at 1:50PM on Saturday afternoon.

Maximilian Günther (16, Germany, Mücke Motorsport), Pole Race 1 and 2: “Double pole for the second time in a row. It’s incredible. I kept on improving and implemented everything that we had discussed previously brilliantly well. For the second time in a row, double pole – that’s incredible. I did not know how close we were, my team-mate Alessio Picariello and I. During qualifying, I saw a ‘1’ next to my name on the pit board and realised that I was doing well. I knew for a fact that the others would still be pushing hard, so I tried to keep on improving. Fortunately, I again achieved the fastest time of anyone on my final lap. I’m very happy and will try this afternoon to secure the best possible result and finish in front.”