On Friday afternoon, the DTM got a possible foretaste of what the rest of the race weekend at the Lausitzring would bring. Heavy rain greeted the 20 drivers at the start of the second free practice session. It was pouring so hard that the session began 13 minutes late. And things didn’t get any better at first: after nine minutes, race director Sven Stoppe had red flags waved because of the heavy rain.
After a forced break of almost 15 minutes, the drivers were able to resume the action and drive the racing line a little drier with each lap – until the rain started to pick up again. The rainy training could still be valuable for the DTM entourage: on Sunday, according to current information, there is a 90 percent chance of rain at the start of the race at 1:30 p.m. On Saturday (race start at 5:00 p.m.) there is a 35 percent risk of rain.
New Pirelli rain tyre celebrates DTM debut
The drivers used the training to familiarize themselves with the brand new rain tires from DTM exclusive supplier Pirelli. The Italians are initially using the new compound called ‘Cinturato WHB’ exclusively in the DTM and its supporting racing series, the ADAC GT Masters. Accordingly, there is no real previous experience with the rain Pirellis.
“The decision to choose the DTM as the starting point for the launch of our new generation of rain tyres is no coincidence,” said Matteo Braga, Manager Circuit Activities at Pirelli. “It was developed based on our experience last year on the circuits of this series and will now be gradually extended to all GT series.”
Lucas Auer crawls forward through the gravel bed
The wet conditions obviously did not allow for fast lap times, so the drivers and teams had to test the limits of the unknown rain tyre. Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes) even went off the track three times, but was able to continuously improve his times and finally ended up in fifth place. Other drivers, including Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) and Clemens Schmid (Dörr-McLaren), also experienced excursions into the gravel bed or across the grass.
At the end of the 45-minute session, Manthey Porsche newcomer Ayhancan Güven was in the top spot. The Turk took the lead early on in the timesheet with a personal best time of 1:35.573 minutes and did not give it up until the end. In the first training session at midday, Manthey team-mate and DTM champion Thomas Preining had grabbed the fastest lap time (1:20.782 minutes).
Kelvin van der Linde just behind Ayhancan Güven
In the afternoon, Jack Aitken (Emil Frey Ferrari), Christian Engelhart (GRT Lamborghini), Auer and Nicki Thiim in the SSR Lamborghini followed in third to sixth place. Ricardo Feller (Abt Audi) and Maro Engel (Winward Mercedes) completed the top eight of the classification.
DTM race on Saturday later than usual
The DTM race on Saturday, May 25th starts later than usual. The race will start at 5:00 p.m. instead of the usual time of 1:30 p.m. The reason for the changed schedule: ProSieben will broadcast the semifinals of the Ice Hockey World Championship on television from 2:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. and between 6:05 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. The DTM race on Saturday will be broadcast between the two games.
Due to the postponement, ProSieben will not only show the race in the evening, but also the DTM qualifying (1:05 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) live on television for the first time. On Sunday, May 26, the DTM and ProSieben will return to the familiar schedule: qualifying (9:40 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.) will be followed by the race from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.