Porsche customer teams struggled in difficult conditions in the Saturday race of the ADAC GT Masters opening weekend in Oschersleben, Team Joos Sportwagentechnik’s qualified strong in second place on the grid for the start of the first race of the weekend but was hampered early on in a race that brought heavy rain and safety cars.

David Jahn, who shares the cockpit of Team Joos Sportwagentechnik's 911 GT3 R with Marco Holzer. Jahn just missed out on pole position by only 0.165 seconds and so lined up on the front row in second place just behind pole man Marciello in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Jahn started well and kept second spot for a number of laps despite coming under constant pressure from behind but when the rain came he made an mistake spinning the car and soon fell back down the order with the team eventually finishing in eighth place.

The best placed Porsche was that defending champion Michael Ammermüller with his new partner Mathieu Jaminet piloting number 92 car of SSR Performance who finished in seventh place. After a difficult qualifying Performance Ammermüller and Jaminet started in thirteenth place but delivered some very close racing and exciting fights and were able to make up for 6 places during the race.

The next Porsche to follow was that of Robert Renauer and Sven Müller of Precote Herberth Motorsport finished ninth place. Jannes Fittje and Dylan Pereira in the number 74 KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche suffered the same fate of David Jahn spinning in the rain and losing places early on crossing the line in twelfth place with the sister car number 75 piloted by Christian Engelhart and Thomas Preining finishing way down the order in twenty sixth place after they were forced to retire.

Mick Wishofer MRS GT Racing: We we’re very unlucky in the first race here at Motorsport arena Oschersleben in the ADAC GT Masters. Max was pushed out at the start and we lost a lot of positions we’d worked hard for. the track is difficult for overtaking so we couldn’t climb back up the order as mush as we would have liked. We take away a 19th position but we will come back stronger tomorrow. A big thanks to all the Molitor Racing System Team and Porsche for their support and set up of the car today

Christian Engelhart (Küs Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R), retirement: “Unfortunately, today wasn't our day. The team did a great job and prepared the car perfectly. In qualifying this morning it was a bit unfortunate. The red flag came at the most inopportune time for us. Nevertheless, the starting position with ninth place was still quite good. In the race we were then also in these regions. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and got off the track when it started to rain. So I lost a few places. It's just so tight in the ADAC GT Masters that you can't make any progress. I am very, very sorry for the team. We'll do better tomorrow and come back stronger. "

Jannes Fittje (Küs Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R), 12th overall, 5th place in the Pirelli Junior classification:“In qualifying I was unlucky with the red flag, a yellow one came before me. So I couldn't really set a time, so it was only P18. The start was pretty good, I was able to make up one position straight away. From then on it was difficult to overtake on the track. But when it started to rain, I was able to gain a few places and pass it to P13. Then Dylan did a good job too, had good pace and drove the thing home in 12th place. By and large, it was damage control. We took the first points in the first race, and the junior classification was okay too. That wasn't to be expected after qualifying. Tomorrow it's Dylan's turn in qualifying. He will accelerate and see that he moves the car further forward. Then we attack again and get a few points again.