The two Audi Sport drivers could hardly have made a better start to the second race weekend in the Super Sports Cars League with top rankings in the two practice sessions. While Niederhauser set best time of anyone on the day in the first session with a 1.27.671, his partner van der Linde went fastest in FP2 with a time of 1.28.034 minutes. "I’m very satisfied," said Niederhauser. "P1 twice – which makes this a mega Friday for us, most definitely! Up until now, we’ve hardly ever had a start to a weekend like this. The team worked hard once again after a solid weekend at the Lausitzring. A podium is always nice, but these grid slots are excellent. The goal is to win. The ADAC GT Masters is so close. It might perhaps rain all day tomorrow and a lot can happen then. As always, we’ll go for the max."

Porsche driver Klaus Bachler from Küs Team75 Bernhard was second-fastest in the session later on. The Austrian, who shares the 911 GT3 R with works driver Simona De Silvestro, was 58 thousandths of a second slower than van der Linde. Third place went to Mick Wishofer and Dorian Boccolacci, rounding off a promising first day for the local favourites from Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing team; The Austro-French duo were second in FP1. "What a great way to start the weekend!" said Wishofer. "Of course, it doesn’t mean a deal at this stage, but we’re feeling great. The Nürburgring is Zakspeed’s home round, so we are all well motivated and keen to produce a great performance. Things have gone pretty well, so far. The goal is a result in the Top Five, or maybe even a podium, but we’ll have more idea tomorrow after qualifying."

Robert Renauer and Sven Müller secured fourth place in the Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche. Championship leaders Maro Engel and Luca Stolz followed in fifth place in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo fielded by local outfit, Toksport WRT. Once again, the close gaps between cars indicated just how competitive the field has become. 28 cars were covered by one second this time around.