Former DTM driver Renger van der Zande made a perfect start to his first weekend in the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring. The sun was shining from a slightly cloudy sky in the Eifel, as the Dutchman and his team-mate Maximilian Götz finished the first free practice session in the lead in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (HTP Motorsport). Within the first few metres, Van der Zande took P1 at the beginning of the first ADAC GT Masters session, until Porsche and Corvette then beat the gullwing's fastest time for a while. Götz reclaimed P1 with ten minutes to go before the end of the 60-minute session, settting the fastest time of 1:28.950 mins.

The two Mercedes drivers were 0.103 secs up on the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mario Farnbacher/Nathan Morcom (Farnbacher Racing), followed by the fastest Corvette GT3 Z06.R with Toni Seiler/Jeroen Bleekemolen (Callaway Competition). Jaap van Lagen, who is placed second in the standings in the run-up to the sixth race weekend of the season, finished fourth along with Christian Engelhart in the Porsche 911 GT3 R (GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport), coming home ahead of the Chevrolet Camaro GT with Albert von Thurn und Taxis and Tomas Enge (Reiter Engineering).

At the wheel of another Porsche 911 GT3 R, Norbert Siedler and Robert Renauer (TONINO Team Herberth), who are back in the fray after missing a race, took sixth place from the fastest BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Max Sandritter and Jens Klingman (PIXUM Team Schubert) and from Sebastian Asch/Philipp Frommenwiler (Farnbacher Racing) in the Porsche. The Audi R8 LMS ultras of Fabian Hamprecht/Nicki Thiim and Kelvin van der Linde/René Rast (all Prosperia C Abt Racing) completed the Top Ten.

The leaders in the standings Claudia Hürtgen and Dominik Baumann placed 14th in the BMW Z4 GT3 (PIXUM Team Schubert).

TONINO one-two in Gentlemen practice

In the Gentlemen practice session that followed on from FP1, the two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs fielded by TONINO Herberth were out in front. Florian Scholze and Dominic Jöst were 0.423 seconds faster than their team-mate and leader in the Gentlemen standings Herbert Handlos. Anton Wossos and Nathan Wolf (GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport) followed them home in another Porsche.