Gabriele Piana (Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport) was unbeatable in qualifying for Saturday’s ADAC GT4 Germany race at the Red Bull Ring. In the BMW M4 GT4, the Italian lapped the 4.318-kilometre circuit in 1:36.849 minutes.
There was a heavy rain shower around the Red Bull Ring on the night of Saturday, meaning that the asphalt gradually dried out during the session. The best times were therefore not driven until the very end.
“In these conditions it’s always a bit of poker. At first it didn’t make any sense to push. Then I had a free stretch at the right time,” explains Piana, who shares the cockpit with Michael Schrey.
With a gap of almost 0.050 seconds, Nicolaj Möller Madsen (W&S Motorsport) set the second fastest time in qualifying and will also start Saturday’s race from the front row in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS. The champion of the 2020 season shares the wheel with junior pilot and Finn Zulauf.
Third place went to the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 driven by Ben Dörr and Romain Leroux (Dörr Motorsport). Dörr was 0.053 seconds behind in qualifying. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Marek Böckmann and Miklas Born (Schnitzelalm Racing) was only 0.055 seconds behind. The Porsche of Moritz Wiskirchen and Alexander Hartvig (Allied Racing) completed the top 5.
The Saturday race of the ADAC GT4 Germany will start at 3:35 p.m. and will be streamed live on sport.de and on adac.de/motorsport. “Of course, winning the race is clearly our goal,” clarifies pole setter Piana. “We won both races here in 2021. Maybe we can do that again this year.”