HOHENSTEIN-ERNSTTHAL, Germany — Thomas Preining (A/Manthey) is perfectly prepared for the final stretch of the DTM title fight.
The 28-year-old set the fastest lap in Friday’s free practice session at the Sachsenring with a time of 1:18.148 minutes. This underlined the Austrian’s position among the top favorites with his Porsche 911 GT3 R on the 3.645-kilometer circuit.
“On the twisty Sachsenring, it’s all about finding the right rhythm. You have to build that up in practice, and we’ve managed to do that. The track suits me quite well; we want to attack and fight for wins,” promised Preining, who is just one point away from the top of the standings.
Kelvin van der Linde (ZA/Schubert Motorsport) finished second, 0.087 seconds behind. Third place went to Ricardo Feller in Manthey’s second 911.
“The year has flown by incredibly fast; suddenly the season is almost over. Therefore, I absolutely want to be on the podium this weekend, and we are perfectly prepared for that,” said the Swiss driver, who set the fastest time of 1:18.857 minutes in the slower second practice session.
The best Mercedes-AMG driver was Jules Gounon (F/Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter) in fourth place.
Championship leader Maro Engel (Monaco/Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol) completed the top five and was satisfied with his own program, without placing too much emphasis on the practice times.
The championship leader said: “We tried different settings, the car feels good. We’re not looking at the competition; we’re focusing entirely on ourselves.”
In the first free practice session, Preining set the fastest time early on, but was briefly overtaken by Engel and Gounon – before reclaiming the top spot with two minutes remaining. Shortly afterwards, van der Linde and Feller moved up to second and third positions.
The afternoon session focused less on lap times and more on race setup: the teams fine-tuned the final car balance and simulated long runs for championship rounds 13 and 14 on Saturday and Sunday.
