Pepper takes third pole with new qualifying record at the Sachsenring

Jordan Pepper remains in attack mode at the Sachsenring. The South African from TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT not only set the fastest lap of the opening qualifying session on Saturday morning, but his time of 1:16.826 minutes also smashed the previous qualifying record, set last year by Thomas Preining, by just short of four tenths of a second. His third pole of the season, coupled with the three bonus points, puts Pepper in a great position to launch an assault on the top of the table in race eleven of the season.

"We made great use of the test day and free practice, the car felt incredible. Plus, I picked up a few tips for the Sachsenring from my friend Kelvin van der Linde. Managing the tyres correctly will be key in the race, because tyre wear at the Sachsenring is relatively high," said the 29-year-old, who was the fastest driver in Friday's free practice.

Jules Gounon from Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter set the second-fastest time and will start the Saturday race from alongside Pepper on the front row of the grid. Third place went to Ferrari driver Ben Green (Emil Frey Racing), who, together with the top two, was one of only three drivers to dip below 1:17.000 minutes.

Pepper's team-mate Luca Engstler secured fourth place on the grid in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Championship leader Lucas Auer (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) was fifth, followed by Jack Aitken (Emil Frey Racing), who currently lies second in the table.

Saturday's first qualifying session at the Sachsenring was a game of patience. With temperatures down around 13 degrees Celsius, the drivers waited a long time before setting off in pursuit of fast lap times. This was particularly significant, as the rough surface only allowed one or two flying laps on the Pirelli slicks.

Green was the first driver to break the 1:17.000-minute barrier, but Pepper soon countered with what would prove to be the fastest time. Gounon then climbed into second place, before Auer made it into the top five on his final lap. First and tenth place were separated by just half a second.

Results are HERE