Sheldon van der Linde made an impressive start to the DTM season in Oschersleben: the defending champion from the Schubert Motorsport team was the top driver after the two free practice sessions on Friday. The South African set the fastest lap time of 1:21.960 minutes in his BMW M4 GT3 and was the only driver to dip under 1:22.000 minutes. “The track was faster in the second free practice than in FP1. The car was also better, which gives us confidence going into Saturday’s qualifying,” said the BMW driver. Mirko Bortolotti (I) from SS Performance set the fastest lap time (1:22.376 minutes) in the opening session.

Tyrolean Clemens Schmid with the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini and South African Sheldon van der Linde with the Schubert Motorsport BMW set the pace in the two free practice sessions on Friday, the opening day of DTM Red Bull Ring powered by REMUS. The lap time of 1m 28.565s set by local hero Schmid in the first session was the fastest time of the day at the 4.318 kilometres long track in Styria. Behind Schmid and DTM points’ leader Sheldon van der Linde (1m 28.574s), another Austrian, Thomas Preining (1m 28.594s) ended up in the top three of the day with the KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche. In bright sunshine, the 27 drivers from DTM participated in the practice day in preparation for the 13th and 14th race of the season. In the process, margins were small: in the morning, the times of the first 21 drivers were within one second, in the afternoon, it was even the first 25.

With Thomas Preining (AUT, KÜS Team Bernhard) and local hero Laurens Vanthoor (BEL, SSR Performance) a Porsche driver came out on top in each of the two DTM free practice sessions at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on Friday. Preining’s time of 2m 17.786s in second free practice was the fastest time of the day among DTM’s 27 world-class drivers at the 7.004 kilometres Grand Prix track in the Belgian Ardennes, the venue for the sixth and third-to-last race weekend of the current season.

Rainy start of DTM Norisring powered by BMW M: on Friday, the first of three event days during the DTM summer highlight in Nuremberg, drivers completed most of their laps on a wet surface. Fastest driver of the day in DTM was Austrian Thomas Preining with the KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche, who posted a time of 49.705 seconds in the first session during which the rain wasn’t so intense yet. For the two following days, warm and sunny weather has been forecast for Norisring again. Ideal conditions, therefore, for a top-notch racing spectacular around the stone grandstand with the DTM races on Saturday and Sunday starting at 1.30pm.

It could hardly have been closer: from the fastest driver of the day, Nico Müller (SUI, Team Rosberg, Audi), down to Canadian Mikaël Grenier, who ended up in 22nd place with the Mercedes-AMG run by the GruppeM Racing team, the lap times of the DTM drivers in second free practice at the 4.909 kilometres long Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola ranged within just one second. With his time of 1m 40.909s, Müller was the only driver to post a sub-1m 41s lap time and thus ended up as the fastest on the practice day of the DTM round in the Emilia Romagna region.

Not just the temperatures were aestival, the on-track action was hot, too. At the end of the practice day at Lausitzring Turn 1 powered by Autohero, the lap times of the four fastest DTM drivers with three different brands at the 4.601 kilometres long track were eight hundredths of a second apart. Fastest driver of […]

Porsche teams led the way on Friday morning, dominating the first free practice session of the final round of this season’s German

An impressive start for Lamborghini at the penultimate race weekend of the German GT Championship in Hockenheim: No fewer than three Huracán GT3 made it into the top five in the first practice session, which took place in perfect conditions, with glorious sunshine and blue sky. Lamborghini works driver Franck Perera was the fastest man in FP1. He was followed by three title contenders, in the form of former champion Jules Gounon (26/F, Team Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing), Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti (31/I, GRT Grasser Racing Team) and Mathieu Jaminet (26/F, SSR Performance) in a Porsche.

Former champion Jules Gounon (26/F, Team Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing) set the fastest time in the opening free practice session of the German GT Championship at the Sachsenring. In doing so, he backed up his impressive performance last time out at the Lausitzring, where he claimed pole position, victory and the fastest lap. Behind the Mercedes-AMG works driver were Porsche and Audi drivers.

Lamborghini set the tempo at the start of the German GT Championship weekend at the Lausitzring: two Huracán GT3 belonging to the GRT Grasser Racing Team topped the timing sheet in the first free practice. In the final seconds of the session, Franck Perera (37/F) set the fastest time, just 0.1 seconds ahead of team-mate Mirko Bortolotti (31/I).

Shining star: Mercedes-AMG dominated the first free practice session of the opening round of this season’s ADAC GT Masters in Oschersleben. The Swabian manufacturer’s cars occupied the top three positions, with works driver Raffaele Marciello (26/I) setting the fastest time of the morning. In doing so, he ensured that Mann-Filter Team Landgraf – HTP/WWR enjoyed a promising start to the series.

Audi driver Ricardo Feller (20, CH) set the first best time of the day in FP1 of the ADAC GT Masters finale at Oschersleben. On a drying track, Feller topped the timesheets ahead of Lamborghini drivers Clemens Schmid (30, AUT) and Tim Zimmermann (24, GER, both GRT Grasser Racing Team). The title contenders were meanwhile happy to bide their time in the slippery conditions.

The ADAC GT Masters title contenders dominated a rain-hit first practice session at the Lausitzring. Porsche driver Robert Renauer (35, GER, Precote Herberth Motorsport) managed to set the fastest time on Friday morning, followed by three more drivers from the Top Five in the standings – Christian Engelhart (33, GER, SSR Performance) also in a Porsche, Lamborghini driver Albert Costa Balboa (30, ESP, GRT Grasser Racing) and championship leader Kelvin van der Linde (24, ZA, Rutronik Racing).

K-PAX Racing, which has quickly shown its speed in its first laps around the Total 24 Hours of Spa circuit, has momentarily shifted its focus leading into one of the year’s most anticipated races to making repairs on one of its two Bentley Continental GT3 entries. The No. 9, piloted by Álvaro Parente, Andy Soucek and Rodrigo Baptista, will undergo an engine change following pre-qualifying, sidelining the car for Thursday afternoon’s qualifying sessions, as well as the evening practice.

On Thursday morning, action for the Total 24 Hours of Spa got underway with a good performance by Mercedes-AMG. In first free practice, three Mercedes-AMG GT3s ended up in the top ten. Maro Engel (GER) of the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT entry posted the third-fastest time in the GT3 field of 56 cars. In total, ten GT3s from Affalterbach will be participating at the circuit in the Ardennes and will be competing for the outright win as well as success in the Pro-Am and Silver classes in the next three days. Seven teams are running the cars, all of them excellently prepared and highly motivated for the endurance racing classic with their 36 drivers in total. Like in the Nürburgring 24-hour race, the efforts of the Mercedes-AMG Performance teams at Spa-Francorchamps will again benefit the ‘Passion for Good’ initiative by the Laureus Sport for Good foundation.

Conditions for the first practice session of the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring were wet and cold as the 100th race weekend in the Super Sports Car League got underway. Porsche driver Robert Renauer (35, GER, Precote Herberth Motorsport) coped best with the tricky conditions.

Mercedes-AMG had the first best showing of the weekend with Maro Engel (35, Monte Carlo), who set best time in first practice for this fourth round of the ADAC GT Masters at the Sachsenring. Klaus Bachler (29, AUT, Küs Team75 Bernhard) was second while P3 went to Frédéric Vervisch (34, BEL, Team WRT) in an Audi.

Reigning champion Patric Niederhauser (28, CH, Rutronik Racing) got his weekend off to the perfect start, setting the best lap time in the first free practice session of the ADAC GT Masters at Hockenheim. The Swiss ace was followed by fellow Audi driver Mirko Bortolotti (30, ITA, Team WRT) and Klaus Bachler (29, AUT, Küs Team75 Bernhard) in a Porsche. The two races on the third weekend of the season will be broadcast live by free-to-air TV channel SPORT1 on Saturday and Sunday (start time 13:00 CEST).

Audi driver Patric Niederhauser (28, CH, Rutronik Racing) set the fastest lap in the first ADAC GT Masters free practice session at the Nürburgring. Last year’s champion topped the timesheets ahead of Mick Wishofer (20, AUT, Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing) in the best of the Mercedes-AMG contingent and Jordan Pepper (24, ZA, T3-HRT-Motorsport) driving the only Bentley in the field.

On your marks, get set, go! The 2020 ADAC GT Masters has begun with FP1 at the Lausitzring. The best time of the practice session was posted by Corvette driver Markus Pommer (29, GER, Callaway Competition). Three other brands made it into the Top Four – Porsche, Audi and Mercedes-AMG.