The DTM drivers have never had so much work on the Friday of a race weekend in recent years: In Zandvoort, in addition to the two free practice sessions, qualifying (5:00 p.m. – 5:20 p.m.) is also on the schedule today! The reason for the unusual schedule for the third event of the 2024 season: Six of the 20 DTM drivers have to make an interim trip to Le Mans from Saturday to Sunday in order to take part in the official test for the 24-hour race (June 15-16) on Sunday morning. They then fly back to Zandvoort by private plane.
To ensure that the drivers in double duty – BMW works drivers Marco Wittmann, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde, Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti, Kelvin van der Linde because of his Lexus program in the WEC and Cadillac driver Jack Aitken – do not miss the qualifying on Sunday morning, the timed practice for the Sunday race (start at 4:30 p.m.) has been brought forward to Friday evening. On Saturday, everything will run as usual with qualifying in the morning and the race at 1:30 p.m.
Zandvoort: Best training time for Lucas Auer
The teams had a lot of work to do in the two practice sessions to prepare for the evening qualifying and to practice the procedures for the race on Saturday. The fastest lap time of the two combined practice sessions was achieved by Lucas Auer (Winward Racing) in the afternoon. The Austrian needed 1:33.078 minutes for his best lap time on the circuit to which the DTM returned in 2023 after a four-year absence.
Last year, the victories went to Maro Engel in the Landgraf Mercedes and Abt Audi driver Ricardo Feller. Overtaking manoeuvres proved difficult on the Formula 1 circuit with its spectacular oval section, which meant that the qualifying sessions played a special role. Behind leader Auer, the second practice session, in which the times were faster than in the morning, was a mixed bag: drivers from six brands followed in second to seventh place, with only Ferrari remaining out.
DTM training: Two Austrians at the top
Clemens Schmid maneuvered his Dörr-McLaren into second position late in the session with a personal best time of 1:33.128 minutes – 0.050 seconds behind Auer and thus two Austrians at the top of the time list. Behind him, things were also close, with the top 10 separated by just four tenths of a second on the 4.259-kilometer dune course.
Third, fourth, fifth and sixth places were taken by: overall leader Kelvin van der Linde (Abt-Audi), two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW), Mirko Bortolotti (SSR-Lamborghini) and Arjun Maini (HRT-Mercedes). Reigning champion Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) and Christian Engelhart in the GRT-Lamborghini completed the top 8 in the second free practice session. In the first session, the two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2s of Nicki Thiim (P10 in the second practice session) and Maximilian Paul (P18 in the second practice session) were at the top.