- Fjordbach and Patterson post final flier to end both practice sessions fastest.
- Similarly late improvement for Guelinckx and Longin, erstwhile leaders Sarmini and Rosina third.
- Sportec Motorsport head up Am runners for second successive season, sixth quickest overall.
High Class Racing returned to the top of the times in the final Fanatec GT2 European Series practice session at Hockenheim, beating their own benchmark from earlier in the day.
The #33 Audi R8 LMS GT2, driven by Mark Patterson and Anders Fjordbach, ran fairly anonymously until the final third of the session, first deposing the #16 True Racing KTM X-BOW GT2 of Sehdi Sarmini and Stefan Rosina from top spot.
A blistering final run then saw the team lower their own benchmark time and become the only pair to break the 1:47 barrier, with a quickest time of 1:47.744 to end the 45-minute session at the head of the field.
It put them a clear half-second ahead of second-fastest Peter Guelinckx and Bert Longin, the #81 PK Carsport challenger similarly improving late on to make it another Audi 1-2 on home soil, and ensure they keep the pressure on their chief Pro-Am rivals heading into qualifying.
Sarmini and Rosina, therefore, ended the session third, but nearly a second quicker than fourth-placed Rupert Atzberger and Peter Kox in the #23 Reiter Engineering KTM.
Aurelijus Rusteika and Michael Vergers led the session during the early running on board the #5 Speed Factory Racing-run Porsche 911 GT2 RS but slipped back to fifth in the final reckoning.
Sixth-fastest was Sportec Motorsport’s #7 KTM in the hands of Christoph Lenz and Christoph Ulrich, the pair once again finishing as the best of the Am runners.
Next was Hubert Trukenpolz and Klaus Angerhofer in the second True Racing KTM (#17), with Oliver Freymuth returning to the action to go eighth quickest for AKF Motorsport in the #28 Lamborghini Huracan GT2.
Kris Rosenberger and Hans Joachim Stuck were ninth in the other Reiter Engineering KTM, the top ten rounded out by Stephane Ratel and Luca Pirri after a few exploratory laps for the LP Racing #88 Audi at the end of the session.
Toro Verde GT’s Lamborghini rounds out the runners, David Fairbrother and Jordan Witt finishing just two tenths shy of those ahead in the #9 after a similarly short session.
The weekend continues with Qualifying at 16:30 (CET).