Stolz, Bleekemolen on the pole at Oschersleben
It was perfect qualifying for the Bentley Team HTP at Oschersleben after their drivers were fastest in both sessions.
First qualifying session was red flagged after less than 20 minutes with Luca Stolz of Bentley Team HTP was on the top after six laps spent on the track. He had advantage just 0.037 seconds in front of Schutz Motorsport’s Christian Engelhart, while at third place was Sebastian Asch (Team Zakspeed) with a gap of 0.073 seconds.
Stolz, in the seat of Bentley Continental GT3, stayed at first without going back on the track until the end of the session. Engelhart also managed to keep second, while up to third moved Dominik Baumann, driver of local team BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert, who was 0.056 seconds behind the leader.
In the second round of qualifying, after the change of the drivers, battle for the pole position was even closer. Few cars were on the top, but at the end fastest again was Bentley Team HTP’s car #7 with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the seat.
His best lap was 1:26.352 and was 0.093 seconds faster than Nicki Thiim of C.Abt Racing Team and 0.177 faster than Sebastian Asch behind the wheel of Team Zakspeed’s Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
Bentley wrote a piece of history clinching double pole positions at their debut in ADAC GT Masters. Stolz did perfect job in the qualifying for the race on Saturday clinching the best time just before small interruption because of dirt on the track. After the restart, no one could managed to take over HTP driver so he was verry happy.
“The track was perfectly matched. I had some luck in traffic. I won a pole position, but I wasn’t dominant as the time differences at the top are extremely small”, said Stolz.
In the qualifying for the race on Sunday, Daniel Keilwitz was on the good way to won the pole. Driver of the Callaway Competition’s Corvette went early on the track and benefited from opened road. But then Luca Ludwig (Team Zakspeed) undercut result of former champion and finally Bleekemolen went to the top. In the final round Nicki Thiim jumped from fourth to second and will start from the front row.
“I didn’t expected pole position because Bentley is still new for me and it wasn’t easy in practice. But I had perfect lap in qualifying and I am really enjoying this. I know it won’t be easy on the race because we don’t know yet what weather we can expect on the weekend”, said Bleekemolen.
