The unpredictable Eifel region weather struck yet again at the fourth stop on the ADAC GT Masters tour at the Nürburgring. Fog descended halfway through the second free practice session on Friday afternoon, causing the session to be aborted eight minutes before the end because some marshals lost visual contact with each other. The fastest lap of 1:26.494 minutes went to Albert Costa Balboa (32/E) of Emil Frey Racing, who shares the cockpit of the #63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo with Jack Aitken (26/GB).
The Christian Engelhart (35/Starnberg) and Ayhancan Güven (24/TR) pairing delivered another strong performance. In the Porsche 911 GT3 R with car number 91 of Team Joos Sportwagentechnik, the duo finished in second place, as they had in the first session in the morning. Youngsters Niklas Krütten (19/Trier) and Ben Green (24/GB) of Schubert Motorsport were also in good form, and finished third with the #10 BMW M4 GT3. The best Mercedes-AMG drivers were Fabian Schiller (25/Troisdorf) and Jules Gounon (27/F) of Drago Racing Team ZVO, in fourth place. Behind them, Patric Niederhauser (30/CH) and Luca Engstler (22/Wiggensbach) in the #15 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Rutronik Racing ensured that every brand made it into the top five.
The best driver of the day was Raffaele Marciello (27/I) in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Mann-Filter Team Landgraf. The works driver got the fastest lap overall, with a time of 1:26.455 minutes during the free practice session on Friday morning. “It was a strong start, but tomorrow is a new day. The car feels really good and we are confident ahead of the first qualifying session,” said Raffaele Marciello, who is competing alongside series returnee Maro Engel (36/Monte Carlo).