Swiss Audi driver Ricardo Feller set the best lap time of the opening day at the DEKRA Lausitzring. Fastest in FP2, in which the entire field was separated by just one second, was Mercedes-AMG driver Raffaele Marciello.

Feller, who currently lies third in the table, set Friday’s fastest time in the Trophy practice at around midday. This extra session is for all the drivers registered for the Pirelli Junior competition or the Pirelli Trophy. Feller, who drives for Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, clocked a time of 1:22.564 minutes, just one tenth of a second faster than Lamborghini driver Franck Perera and Raffaele Marciello in a Mercedes-AMG, who were fastest in the first and second sessions respectively.

“The car feels good. I think we are well prepared,” said Feller. “However, it is always difficult to say on Friday how we will fare in the end. I am obviously hoping that we do as well tomorrow as we did today. It is important to continue to score as many points as possible in the championship. I am not actually concerned about leading at the halfway point of the season. What matters is the table after the finale at the Nürburgring.”

Marciello, who shares the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo run by Mann-Filter Team Landgraf – HTP/WWR with Maximilian Buhk, was fastest in the afternoon, followed by the BMW of Nick Yelloly and Jesse Krohn. The Schubert Motorsport duo only completed a few laps in FP1, after suffering technical issues and spinning off into the gravel bed. Third and fourth place in the second practice went to the Audis of Jusuf Owega/Patric Niederhauser (Phoenix Racing) and Kim-Luis Schramm/Dennis Marschall. Rounding off the top five were Igor Waliłko/Jules Gounon of the Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing team in another Mercedes-AMG. Remarkably, the 26 cars were separated by just 0.949 seconds at the end of FP2.

Fans can now look forward to an exciting first qualifying at 11:00 on Saturday morning.