NURBURG, Germany — Thomas Preining (AUT) set the fastest practice lap on Friday with a time of 1:25.517 minutes.
His teammate Ricardo Feller (SUI) finished second in the Porsche 911 GT3 R, 0.249 seconds behind.
“The home race at the Nürburgring is something very special for us. We’ve already achieved a few podium finishes here, but a victory has eluded us so far. Now we finally want to secure the first home win for the 911 GT3 R,” said Preining.
Behind the two 911s came the BMW duo from Schubert Motorsport. Kelvin van der Linde (AUT) took third place, followed by his teammate Marco Wittmann (GER) in fourth. Fifth place went to Nicki Thiim (DEN/COMTOYO Racing) in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Championship leader Maro Engel (Monaco) placed his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 14th position.
In the first free practice session on Friday morning, the teams fine-tuned their cars for the sprint configuration of the Nürburgring circuit in temperatures approaching 34 degrees Celsius.
They also used the sessions for pit stop practice.
Matteo Cairoli (I/Emil Frey Racing) set the fastest time with 1:26.144 minutes.
“That was a good start to the weekend, especially after the recent difficult race weekends at Oschersleben and the Norisring. I hope we can be right up there at the front,” said the Ferrari driver. Looking ahead to the weekend, Cairoli added: “You can hardly afford to make a mistake at the Nürburgring. There’s a lot of rubber debris off the racing line. If you pick that up, it can cost you a lot, especially in qualifying. The high temperatures certainly don’t make it any easier. But as an Italian, I’m used to the heat.”
In the second, faster session in the afternoon, van der Linde led for a long time with a lap time of 1:25.834 minutes. Shortly before the end, the Manthey Porsches turned up the heat and engaged in a thrilling duel.
Preining initially took the lead, but was overtaken by Feller just seconds later. On his final lap, the 28-year-old Austrian ultimately set the fastest time.
