An unusual start to the penultimate weekend of the DTM season at the Sachsenring: Thomas Preining set the fastest time of the day in the favoured Porsche with a 1:18.148. However, not with his time from the second session, but from the first practice. In the afternoon, Manthey team-mate Ricardo Feller was fastest with a 1:18.857 - and more than 0.7 seconds slower.
But why did the track not allow any faster times in the evening? Only Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann and HRT Ford driver Arjun Maini, who missed the first session completely - apparently because of a water pump defect - set their personal best times in the evening.
"We suspect it was because of the historic cars," says team boss Gottfried Grasser. In the early afternoon there was a practice session for the Historic-Cup East, featuring formula cars and touring cars from before 1990. "It may well be that oil got onto the track."
BMW defies Sachsenring weakness: second place!
Preining's fastest time of the day was also significantly slower than Jordan Pepper's qualifying lap record (1:16.826) from last year. Porsche proved strong as expected, which Feller's third place (+0.213) in the day's classification also underlined, but BMW caused a surprise!
Schubert driver Kelvin van der Linde set the second-fastest time of the day in first practice - and was only 0.087 seconds behind Preining. Wittmann also put himself near the front in second practice with third place, which was enough for ninth in the overall classification. Until now, the twisty Sachsenring had been regarded as a problem track for BMW, but the strong practice result is positive news for Wittmann's title hopes.
Kelvin van der Linde loses his temper: "What an idiot"
There was a brief scare for van der Linde in the closing stages of second practice: the German-South African was late on the brakes into the first corner and narrowly missed the slow-moving Audi guest starter Simon Connor Primm. "What an idiot, this guy," van der Linde, who then slid into the gravel, snapped over the radio.
Fourth and fifth in the overall classification went to the two Winward Mercedes drivers Jules Gounon (+0.380) and DTM leader Maro Engel (+0.416), who has to move back three grid places on Saturday. Birthday boy Lucas Auer, who turns 32 today, was eighth in the Landgraf Mercedes, 0.756 seconds back. That continues the trend from the official test day, when the Winward duo were also slightly faster than Auer.
Sixth and seventh went to former champion Mirko Bortolotti (+0.480) and Dorr McLaren youngster Ben Dorr (+0.603). Title contenders Matteo Cairoli (+0.783) in the Emil Frey Ferrari and Nicki Thiim (+0.804) in the Comtoyou Aston Martin were tenth and 11th.
Audi team Seyffarth not at the back of the field on DTM debut
But how did Audi team Seyffarth fare, after deciding at short notice to make a guest appearance at the Sachsenring? The 21-year-old Saxon Simon Connor Primm took 18th place in the day's classification, 1.173 seconds back - and that on his first outing in a GT3 car on the demanding rollercoaster circuit.
"It was important for me to get a lot of laps in," says Primm, who completed a total of 48 laps and had three completely new sets of tyres available for them. The regular teams receive only one new set on Friday, but in some cases have saved tyres from other weekends.
Primm expects qualifying in particular to be a challenge. "The window in which the tyre works is relatively small here because the asphalt is very rough," he knows. "A lot of people probably have this problem here. So you have a maximum of two laps in which you can set a quick lap."
Audi guest starter dreams of top-10 result
He says he "unfortunately didn't quite hit" that window on his personal best time of the day in first practice - "and there was still quite a bit of time in it". Despite the enormous challenge, Primm has set himself ambitious goals for the weekend: "Even if it is unrealistic for us, my aim is for us to make it into the top 10. That would be a dream."
To achieve that in the race, the pit stops also have to work - and the small Audi squad, which only assembled the crew at short notice and has no experience with performance stops, was only allowed to practise tyre changes from 16:00 on Thursday.
"If we are in the seven-second range, I would definitely be satisfied," says team boss Tobias Seyffarth. "But it is better to leave a little time on the table than make a mistake."
Paul already braking exclusively with his left foot on comeback
Maximilian Paul was 19th on his DTM comeback in the Grasser Lamborghini, two months after his horror crash. The Dresden driver, who had broken his tibia and fibula as well as a lumbar vertebra, was 1.335 seconds back.
And he is already able to brake with his left foot again. "In the test I supported it with my right - especially in the braking zones where you really need pressure," he explains. "At 100 kilograms, the pain was still too much."
But already during his outing in the Italian GT Championship at Imola, he says he braked "exclusively with the left". "And at the Sachsenring the load on the braking leg isn't that high anyway," he makes clear.
