The sound of engines are roaring again in Spielberg, DTM is officially back. At the Red Bull Ring, fan favourite drivers returned and new faces appeared. Bastian Buus and Finn Wiebelhaus made their first metres as rookies in the highly ranked racing series.

We also saw the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3 make its debut. And it was not just the car: Lamborghini factory driver Marco Mapelli joins the grid as a newcomer as well.

It was the McLaren of Ben Dörr that set the early pace in the first session. Mercedes took over in the remaining two sessions. Lucas Auer went quickest in FP2, and Tom Kalender underlined in FP3 that the AMG GT3 might be the car to beat this season.

McLaren setting the early pace

The Ford Mustang of Arjun Maini was the first to put a lap on the board in the early morning session, but it was Ben Dörr, driving the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for Butzbach/Dörr Motorsport, who set the early pace with a 1:28.567. The Mercedes of Lucas Auer followed the 21 year old just 0.203 seconds behind.

Except for Thierry Vermeulen, who placed his Ferrari 296 GT3 fourth, the rest of the top six was filled entirely by Mercedes drivers in their AMG GT3 machinery. The German powerhouse looked sharp once again in the opening session, held under clear and sunny conditions.

Auer and Kalender lead the way, Temerario Yet to Impress

In the other two sessions it was the Mercedes AMG GT3 that made its intentions for the season clear. Lucas Auer, who drives in the clean blue adidas themed Mercedes of Team Landgraf, set the tone in the second practice session. The local fan favourite put in the fastest time of the day with a 1:28.204, followed closely by Jules Gounon (+0.004) and Maro Engel (+0.006) in their AMG GT3s. This session primarily served as a qualifying simulation for the new Pirelli slick developed specifically for DTM.

Later in the day, it was the young and talented Tom Kalender showing what he can do as he enters his second DTM season. With a 1:28.841, the 18 year old Landgraf driver topped the timing sheets in his Mercedes AMG GT3. Gounon followed again in second (+0.043), while Ben Dörr, quickest in the first session, ended up third (+0.057).

The session was briefly interrupted when Nicki Thimm lost a spring on his Aston Martin, bringing out the red flag. After five minutes of track cleaning, practice was back underway. Notable was the continued struggle for Lamborghini: with the new Temerario GT3, they failed to break into the top ten in any of the three sessions.

What also caught the eye were the lines the drivers took into turn 1. Mercedes, especially Auer, stayed much closer to the inside on entry, while McLaren and Lamborghini were completely off track and on the absolute limit. Despite leaving that gap, the German team topped two of the three sessions and was there pacewise every time.

What is clear is that we have not seen the best of them yet. Mercedes are looking like the favourites, at least for this race weekend.

Visual difference of lines taken going into turn 1 during FP3 | Dominik Wieser