– Unusual start to the penultimate weekend of the DTM season at the Sachsenring: Thomas Preining drove the fastest time of the day in the favored Porsche with a 1:18.148. However, not with his time from the second, but from the first training session (Result FT1). Because in the afternoon, Manthey teammate Ricardo Feller was fastest with a 1:18.857 – and over 0.7 seconds slower (Result FT2).
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But why did the track not allow faster times in the evening? Only Schubert-BMW driver Marco Wittmann and HRT-Ford driver Arjun Maini, who completely missed the first session – apparently due to a water pump defect – set their personal best times in the evening.
“We suspect it was due to the vintage cars,” says team boss Gottfried Grasser. Because in the early afternoon there was a training session of the Historic Cup East, in which formula cars and touring cars from before 1990 participate. “It is quite possible that oil got onto the track.”
BMW defies Sachsenring weakness: second place!
The fastest time of the day by Preining, who is only one point behind DTM leader Maro Engel in the overall standings, was also significantly slower than the qualifying lap record of Jordan Pepper (1:16.826) from last year. Porsche proved to be strong as expected, which is also underlined by Feller’s third place (+0.213) in the daily standings, but BMW caused a surprise!
Schubert driver Kelvin van der Linde drove the second fastest time of the day in the first training – and was only 0.087 seconds behind Preining. Also in the second training, teammate Wittmann positioned himself in third place in the front field, which was enough for ninth place in the overall standings. Until now, the twisty Sachsenring was considered a problem track for BMW, but the strong training result is positive news for Wittmann’s title hopes.
Kelvin van der Linde loses his temper: “What an idiot”
There was a small scare in the final phase of the second training for van der Linde: The German-South African braked late in the first corner and narrowly missed the slow-moving Audi guest starter Simon Connor Primm. “What an idiot, this guy,” van der Linde exploded over the radio after sliding into the gravel trap.
In fourth and fifth place in the overall standings were the two Winward Mercedes drivers Jules Gounon (+0.380) and Engel (+0.416), who has to drop three grid places on Saturday. Birthday boy Lucas Auer, who turns 32 today, was eighth in the Landgraf Mercedes with a 0.756 second deficit.
This continues the trend from the official test day, when the Winward duo was also slightly faster than Auer, who also had a spin.
In sixth and seventh place were former champion Mirko Bortolotti (+0.480) and Dörr-McLaren youngster Ben Dörr (+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 eleventh.
Audi team Seyffarth not at the back of the field in DTM debut
But how did the Audi team Seyffarth fare, which decided at short notice to make a guest start at the Sachsenring? The 21-year-old Saxon Simon Connor Primm finished 18th in the daily standings with a 1.173 second deficit – and that in his first start in the GT3 car on the quite demanding rollercoaster track.
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“It was important for me to get many laps in,” says Primm, who completed a total of 48 laps and had three completely new sets of tires available for this. The regular teams only receive one new set on Friday but have partly saved tires from other weekends.
Primm especially expects a challenge in qualifying. “The window in which the tire works is relatively small here because the asphalt is very rough,” he knows. “Many probably have this problem here. Therefore, you have a maximum of two laps in which you can set a fast lap.”
Audi guest starter dreams of a top-10 result
He “unfortunately did not quite hit” this window with his personal best time in the first training – and there was still a lot of time left. For the weekend, Primm has set himself big goals despite the enormous challenge: “Even if it is unrealistic for us, I have the ambition that we make it into the top 10. That would be a dream.”
To achieve this in the race, the pit stops must also work – and the small Audi crew, which only put the team together at short notice and has no experience with performance stops, was only allowed to practice tire changes from Thursday at 4:00 p.m.
“If we are in the area of seven seconds, I would definitely be satisfied,” says team boss Tobias Seyffarth. “But better to leave a little time than to make a mistake.”
Paul brakes exclusively with left foot on comeback
Maximilian Paul was 19th in his DTM comeback in the Grasser Lamborghini two months after his horror crash. The Dresden native, who had broken his shin and calf bones as well as a lumbar vertebra, was 1.335 seconds behind.
Photos: DTM 2026: Race weekend Sachsenring
And he is already able to brake again with his left foot. “During the test, I supported with the right – especially in the braking zones where you really need pressure,” he says. “The pain was still too high at 100 kilograms there.”
But already during his appearance in the Italian GT Championship in Imola, he braked “exclusively with the left.” “And at the Sachsenring, the load on the braking leg is not that high anyway,” he clarifies. The first qualifying takes place on Saturday at 9:55 a.m. (all info on TV times, stream, etc.).
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