The DTM has experienced an entertaining day of free practice at Nürburgring, where extremely high temperatures of 36 degrees have marked the event. Despite a nearby forest fire, the Manthey team from Porsche has stood out with the best lap, achieved by Thomas Preining with a time of 1:25.517, surpassing his teammate Ricardo Feller by 0.249 seconds.
Preining was very close to the 2023 qualifying record set by Mirko Bortolotti, just 0.399 seconds below, hinting that we might see a new record during today’s qualifying. Marco Wittmann, a BMW driver, has expressed his hopes for a competitive performance from the team, and it seems that this desire has been fulfilled.
Rewarded and Penalized
The drivers who used their new tires at the start of the second session, like Kelvin van der Linde and Wittmann, finished in third and fourth respectively. Nicki Thiim, who is second in the overall standings, also fought for the top spots with a time that places him among the top five.
As for the HRT Ford drivers, Wiebelhaus and Arjun Maini must serve a drive-through penalty during Saturday’s race for violating testing regulations on the circuit prior to the event.
Expectations for Mercedes-AMG
The situation for Mercedes-AMG has sparked debate. Driver Maro Engel, leader of the DTM, has only managed to achieve 14th place. Jurg Flach, technical head of Emil Frey, has warned that the brand should not be underestimated, as they might still have surprises in store for the competition.
Incidents and Driver Performance
The session was briefly affected by the stoppage of Marco Mapelli, who caused a Full Course Yellow period when he got stuck in his Lamborghini. Eventually, he resumed practice and achieved the best result among Lamborghini drivers, placing himself in tenth position.
Christian Engelhart, who is substituting for Maximilian Paul, improved his performance during the second session, attaining 16th place, 0.961 seconds behind Preining, a significant improvement from the first practice.
Now the drivers are preparing for the first qualifying session where the show promises to be intense, with track conditions and low tire degradation allowing for multiple quick attempts.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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