Preining Leads Stolz in Second Spa Practice

Thomas Preining beat out Luca Stolz to top the second and final DTM Free Practice session at Spa, which was once again hit by a rain shower in the closing minutes.

Preining posted a late best lap of 2:17.786 in the No. 24 KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 R, beating out Stolz by 0.244 seconds.

Stolz himself had just jumped to second place in the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo amidst a flurry of late improvements in the closing minutes of the 45-minute session.

Quick laps from both drivers knocked the No. 92 SSR Performance Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor to third place.

Vanthoor had sat atop the session with a 2:18.072, but ended the afternoon third ahead of Philipp Eng and Nico Mueller.

Mueller had led proceedings early on, but saw his running impacted when his No. 51 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II suffered a right-rear puncture exiting Pouhon while second-fastest.

Dennis Olsen ended the session sixth, ahead of Lucas Auer and Esteban Muth.

Muth attracted attention with a special one-off livery on his No. 10 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, designed by Princess Delphine of Belgium and commemorating his home race.

Sheldon van der Linde took ninth, with Maro Engel completing the top ten.

Similarly to the first Free Practice session, a significant rain shower in the closing minutes effectively ended running early.

Qualifying for the opening race of the weekend is due to start Saturday at 10:05 a.m. CEST (4:05 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 2