Feller Fastest in Hockenheim Free Practice

Ricardo Feller set the fastest lap in a rain-affected Free Practice for the third round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season at Hockenheim.

The Tresor Orange 1 driver steered Attempto Racing’s No. 40 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to a chart-topping 1:38.433 figure, beating points leader Raffaele Marciello by almost a second.

The 80-minute session started in wet conditions that yielded an early red flag when the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG spun into the barrier at Turn 16.

A second brief red flag stoppage occurred just before the halfway mark when the No. 71 Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 27 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II came together and the latter car stopped with Gregoire Demoustier behind the wheel.

Despite the early rainfall, track conditions gradually improved over Free Practice and the fastest lap time was reduced by around 14 seconds from start to finish.

Attempto Audi driver Alex Aka was the first to dip under the 1m 40s barrier with just over 15 minutes left on the clock, but he ended up seventh overall as others made late improvements.

Feller, who shares the No. 40 Audi with Mattia Drudi, displaced Albert Costa at the top of the leaderboard with five minutes to go and remained there until the checkered flag.

Costa, driving the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, eventually wound up third behind Marciello in the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG.

Christian Engelhart was fourth for the Dinamic GT Porsche squad, ahead of Sainteloc Junior Team Audi driver Patric Niederhauser and Valentino Rossi in the best of the BMW M4 GT3s.

Rossi, who won the most recent Sprint Cup race at Misano, initially went quickest in the first half of the session which was reserved for Bronze and Silver-rated drivers.

However, the former MotoGP star also incurred a €600 ($650 USD) fine for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 11.2 km/h (6.9 mph).

Aka led the Silver Cup class in seventh overall, while WRT’s Niklas Kruetten topped Gold Cup in 10th.

Bronze Cup was topped by Hubert Haupt in the No. 79 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG.

Track action at Hockenheim continues with Pre-Qualifying at 2:20 p.m. local time (8:20 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice