Turbulent training start at the DTM in Zandvoort – with tire damage at Lamborghini: First, seven of the left tires burst at the Huracan GT3 Evo2 by Jordan Pepper in the second training session. The Grasser-Pilot lost his car from control and flew into the gravel bed.
After a full-course yellow phase was called out to mount the car, the next Lamborghini: Champion Mirko Bortolotti reported by radio that what does not fit when the back tire was right and dragged its abbot car back to the box with a damaged tire.
This is exactly what you do not want on a Friday in Zandvoort if the qualifying for Sunday, which is early due to the LE MANS test, takes place in the evening.
Grasser: “Zandvoort was always a killer for us”
At Pepper, according to the Grasser team, it was an old tire set with which the incident passed. “And Zandvoort has always been a mature killer for us,” team boss Gottfried Grasser refers to the rough asphalt and the quick corners in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com.
Manthey-Porsche-Pilot Thomas Preining secured the best time in the free training sessions with a 1: 33,345. The DTM champion of the 2023 season was 0.109 seconds faster than Schubert BMW pilot Marco Wittmann, who finished second. Preining’s teammate Ayhanancan Güven (+0,421) came in third place before Rene Rast (+0.111) follows fourth of the second Schubert BMW.
Jack Aitken (+0.460) in the best EMIL-Frey-Ferrari, sixth Arjun Maini (+0.602) in the surprisingly strong HRT-Ford, Ben Dörr (+0.672) ended up in the Dörr-McLaren, before eighth with Tim calendar (+0,685) the best Mercedes follows.
Auer best time in the morning shows the development of the route
The times of the second session were significantly faster in violent wind, but dry conditions than in the morning, which is also due to the dusty route because of the sand dunes. In the first training session, DTM leader Lucas Auer secured the best time in 1: 34.267.
Although he was one of the few in the first training session, the Landgraf Mercedes pilot came in 18th place in the overall classification. This shows the development of the route through driving. And there should still be a lot of room for improvement, because in the previous year Jack Aitken even came up with a pole era of 1: 31.762.
The best Lamborghini driver was Grasser-Lamborghini-Pilot Luca Engstler (+0.722) in tenth. The strongest pilot of the Abt troop, which in Zandvoort neither in the GT World Challenge Europe was at the start nor was on the test day, was in 17th place despite his tire damage Bortolotti (+0,871).
Qualifying on Friday evening causes stress
In the overall classification of free training, Timo Glock only came to the 23rd and penultimate place, but as one of the few, he drove his personal best in the first training session in which he became ninth. Can you use the knowledge from free training better this time than in the past because qualifying is already taking place in the evening?
“The engineers have little time to worry,” clarifies team owner Rainer Dörr. “If qualifying takes place the next day, you have more time to take a look at the data.”
The qualifying for Sunday takes place 3:20 hours after the end of the second free training and will start at 5:00 p.m. It is of particular importance because overtaking in Zandvoort is more difficult than in many other courses.