Pierre Kaffer and Michael Doppelmayr set a scorching pace to lead Friday’s Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli Free Practice session at Hockenheim, while Philippe Prette was the best of the Am class runners at the German circuit.
In searing summer temperatures, Kaffer’s late flyer ensured the LP Racing duo surged to the top of the Pro-Am times, clocking the day’s best effort of 1:42.814s in the #18 Audi R8 LMS GT2.
It was good enough to topple nearest rivals Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen by a mere 0.064s after an hour of running, bumping the #80 KTM X-BOW GT2 down to second after a strong outing for the Razoon - More Than Racing rookies.
Another late mover was the similar KTM of Pro-Am points leaders Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch, the Team MZR crew jumping up the order to third in the closing minutes.
LP Racing ended the session with three of its quartet sitting inside the top five. Fourth place went the way of Leonardo Gorini and Carlo Tamburini in the #1 Maserati GT2, ahead of the Italian squad’s #88 Audi as both Stéphane Ratel and Stefan Rosina instantly found their feet on their GT2 comebacks.
Just under a second covered the top five runners. They were followed by Motorsport 98 duo Eric De Doncker and Loris Hezemans, who were hot on the heels of former vice-champion Rosina as best of the Mercedes-AMG entries.
The Am class was led by Philippe Prette (#2 Maserati) in seventh overall. The LP Racing driver’s closest challenge came from NM Racing’s Stéphane Perrin and Jörg Viebahn in their Mercedes-AMG, followed by Alexandre Leroy (TFT Racing Maserati) who leads the Am standings heading into the event. The #16 True Racing KTM of Sehdi Sarmini and Klaus Angerhofer rounded out the top 10.
Next up for the Fanatec GT2 field is Pre-Qualifying on Saturday morning (11:05), giving drivers a further hour to prepare for the main Qualifying session at 17:00.