Test at Hockenheim Day 1: Porsche dominates early, McLaren quickly

The official two-day DTM test at Hockenheim (the new season will be broadcast live on Free.TV on ProSieben and live stream on ran.de) starts as the 2023 season ended – Manthey EMA at the top! However, team newcomer Ayhancan Güven was ahead of champion Thomas Preining with a record of 1:37.414, who was 0.122 seconds slower in the “Grello” Porsche.

The only two remaining Porsches in the DTM were faster than Kelvin van der Linde, who was 0.528 seconds behind in third place in the Abt Audi. By comparison: Last year, Preining took the lead in the title final on Sunday with a time of 1:36.800, so he was sixth fastest.

“We did a qualifying simulation and the car feels really good,” says Porsche works driver Preining, excited about his return to the DTM cockpit.

“The car has the same symmetry as usual, but it’s more aggressive to drive in a racing format,” explains the Austrian in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com. “Especially when it’s made for me – that’s just great. Plus, it’s great to have a team again – at a track where things went well.”

There were no notable incidents or disruptions on the first day of the test, which consisted of 45 minutes of driving in the afternoon and 50 minutes in the evening. With overcast skies and temperatures of 11 degrees, many drivers took the opportunity to get used to their new teams, cars or race engineers.

All drivers’ lap times were slower in the first session than in the second session. This is because the track was previously dirty and many teams were doing performance checks. “We took the car in and checked again if everything is in order,” explains Lucas Auer, whose Mercedes-AMG GT3 in “Crocodile” guise is not yet widely known.

A technical glitch prevents Wittmann from playing Schubert’s debut

Kelvin van der Linde and the two Grasser pilots Christian Engelhart and Luca Engstler, who was racing in the new Liqui-Moly design for the first time, were left without time, and Schubert guest Marco Wittmann skipped the session altogether. As you may have heard, the reason was a technical fault.

In the second half, Güven’s best time was almost one second faster than Rene Rast’s in the afternoon. The new McLaren Dörr team also did well in their DTM debut: Clemens Schmid was fifth in the all-new McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, 0.719 seconds behind the best time of the day.

“Today we drove the car for the first time – on the racetrack,” says Schmid in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com after his team has made just one launch so far. “I’m very surprised. The car worked very well with the basic setup from McLaren. Of course there are still one or two small things we still need to improve, but I’m satisfied.”

Engstler suddenly leading during the start practice

After the end of the session, the start of the whole stadium was simulated shortly before 6pm – also providing interesting video and photo material. Engstler and his Lamborghini brand mate Mirko Bortolotti led the field.

“We did another performance test – and suddenly we were in front behind the safety car,” reveals Engstler who was surprised it wasn’t planned that way.

In the evening, more all-car records were taken as the teams prepared for the second day of official testing, with a 45-minute session starting at 10:05am and 3:55 hours of driving time starting at 2pm.

Results at a glance

Second session results: 1. Ayhancan Güven (Manthey-EMA-Porsche) 1:37.414 (22 laps) 2. Thomas Preining (Manthey-EMA-Porsche) 1:37.536 (9) 3. Kelvin van der Linde (Abt- Audi) 1:37.942 (23) 4. Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1:38.099 (20) 5. Clemens Schmid (Dörr-McLaren) 1:38.133 (18) 6. Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW) : 1 38.133 (21) 7. Ricardo Feller (Abt-Audi) 1:38.147 (21) 8. Arjun Maini (HRT-Mercedes) 1:38.285 (21) 9. Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes) 1:38.416 (17) 10 Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) 1:38.541 (19) 11. Nicki Thiim (SSR-Lamborghini) 1:38.546 (23) 12. Luca Stolz (HRT-Mercedes) 1:38.573 (20) 13. Mirko Bortolotti SSR- Lamborghini) 1:38.605 (24) 14. Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert-BMW) 1:38.655 (22) 15. Maximilian Paul (Paul-Lamborghini) 1:38.685 (24) 16. Marco Wittmann (Schubert-WBM) ) 1:38.722 (18) 17. Jack Aitken (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1:38.749 (16) 18. Christian Engelhart (Grasser-Lamborghini) 1:38.900 (21) 19. Luca Engstler (Grasser-Lamborghini) 39,055 (17) ) 20. Ben Dörr (Dörr-McLaren) 1:39,321 (21)

Results of the first session: 1. Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW) 1:38.396 (16 laps) 2. Thomas Preining (Manthey-EMA-Porsche) 1:38.601 (14) 3. Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes) 1: 38.601 (15) 4. Mirko Bortolotti (SSR-Lamborghini) 1:38.681 (19) 5. Nicki Thiim (SSR-Lamborghini) 1:38.739 (16) 6. Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) 1:38.776 (.Arjun Maini (HRT-Mercedes) 1:38.855 (22) 8. Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert-BMW) 1:38.904 (13) 9. Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1:38.938 (18) 10. Ayhancan Güven ( Manthey-EMA-Porsche) 1:38.976 (17) 11. Luca Stolz (HRT-Mercedes) 1:39.078 (19) 12. Ricardo Feller (Abt-Audi) 1:39.150 (15) 13. Maximilian Paul (Paul-Lamborghini ) 1:39.433 (23) 14. Clemens Schmid (Dörr-McLaren) 1:40.807 (15) 15. Jack Aitken (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1:41.056 (6) 16. Ben Dörr (Dörr-Merr-Mörr) ) 1:42.903 (14)

No time: Kelvin van der Linde (Abt-Audi) (4) Luca Engstler (Grasser-Lamborghini) (7) Christian Engelhart (Grasser-Lamborghini) (2)

Not driving: Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW)