The ADAC GT Masters started early on Friday morning at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena on the new-for-2012 Yokohama rain tyres. On a wet track, the new Audi R8 LMS ultra put in a strong performance during first practice. The first hot lap in the 60 minute free practice session was set by Christian Engelhart and Nick Tandy in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Geyer & Weinig EDV-Unternehmensberatung/Schütz Motorsport, but they were replaced at the top of the timesheets halfway through the session by the Audi R8 LMS ultra of Prosperia uhc speed driven by Christoper Mies and Christer Jöns. The Audi duo held onto first position until the end of the session and secured the first fastest time of the season ahead of Amateur Championship runner-up Swen Dolenc and Martin Ragginger in the FACH AUTO TECH-Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The third and fourth fastest times belonged to two Audi R8s with Christian Mamerow/Bernd Herndlhofer (Mamerow Racing) finishing ahead of the 2009 ADAC GT Masters champion Christian Abt and Carsten Tilke (Prosperia uhc speed).

The fastest Mercedes duo were Sebastian Asch/Maximilian Götz in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of the kfzteile24 MS RACING team ahead of the Porsche of Engelhart/Tandy and Sascha Bert/Luca Ludwig, who recorded the seventh fastest time in the McLaren MP4-12C of Gemballa Racing.

The Top 10 of the first free practice session was completed by Maximilian Mayer/Jan Seyffarth (Seyffarth Motorsport-Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3) ahead of Nicki Thiim/Robert Renauer in the FROGREEN CO2-Neutral Porsche 911 GT3 R and Daniel Dobitsch/Florian Stoll in the second car of the kfzteile24 MS Racing team.

The reigning champion Dino Lunardi and his new team mate Maxime Martin in the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 finished the first practice session in P15.