Nico Müller (Team Rosberg, Audi) posted the fastest time of the day in free practice at Portimao.
The Swiss completed his fastest lap of the 4.653 kilometres long circuit in 1:40.793s during first free practice.
In second free practice, Sheldon van der Linde topped the time sheets with 1:40.807s, just 0.014 seconds down on Müller’s fastest time.
In the first practice, there were four different brands among the first six places with Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and BMW while BMW, Porsche, Audi, Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG even made it five different brands among the top six in the second session.
“Today was a good day for us,” Nico Müller summed up after Friday’s two practice sessions. “We just focussed on ourselves and tried to sort out the final details for qualifying and the race. But most of the drivers will only really put their cards on the table tomorrow, so therefore we will know only then where we really are. The feeling compared to last year’s car is considerably better. On one hand, there is the evo package, but on the other hand, we have made some steps in the right direction as a team as well. In any case, this was a good start and anticipation for tomorrow’s race is huge.”
First place for Sheldon van der Linde (RSA, Schubert Motorsport) in second free practice was the first fastest time in DTM for the new BMW M4. “It shows that the new car has great potential,” van der Linde said. “Of course, it is still early days, but being right up there on the opening day is a great feeling. I am looking forward to tomorrow!”
The Porsche drivers proved to be strong as well: with Belgian Laurens Vanthoor (SSR Performance) in first and Austrian Thomas Preining (KÜS Team Bernhard) in second free practice, a DTM newcomer ended up second in each of the sessions. Two further DTM rookies were strong as well: German Marius Zug, the youngest driver in the field at 19, was fourth-fastest with the Attempto Audi in the second session while Brazilian Felipe Fraga was classified fifth with the Red Bull Ferrari. For Fraga’s teammate, rally superstar Sébastien Loeb, racing in DTM for the first time, twelfth place in second practice was his best result.
