Akkodis ASP moved to the top of the timing screens in this afternoon's Pre-Qualifying session at Hockenheim thanks to its championship-leading #88 Mercedes-AMG.
Following this morning's rain-soaked free practice, the second full-field run of the weekend was staged in dry conditions and with blue sky above. This ensured a busy track from the very start, not to mention considerably faster lap times.
The best of them belonged to Raffaele Marciello, who posted a 1m37.643s to knock early pace-setter Dennis Marschall (#66 Attempto Racing Audi) off top spot. The gap could not have been smaller, with just 0.001s separating the top two, while Charles Weerts was third in the #32 Team WRT Audi.
Fourth overall went to the #7 Inception Racing McLaren, which led the way in the Gold Cup class thanks to a 1m37.905s from Frederik Schandorff. The Dane led a trio of McLaren runners, followed by the #111 JP Motorsport entry and the #159 entered by Garage 59. The latter also topped the Silver Cup order thanks to Nicolai Kjaergaard.
SPS Automotive Performance paced the Pro-Am runners thanks to a 1m38.326s from Dominik Baumann. All 49 cars competing this weekend were on-track, with the #83 Iron Dames Ferrari finishing at the foot of the order.
There were numerous spins during the 90-minute session as drivers found the limit in dry conditions. A red flag occurred a little before the halfway point when Dean MacDonald spun the #159 McLaren into the gravel. A procedural red flag with three minutes left on the clock brought Pre-Qualifying to an early conclusion.
The next on-track activity will be tomorrow morning's crucial qualifying session which gets underway at 09:45 CEST, while the race goes green at 15:00. All of the the action will air in English, German, French and Italian on the GTWorld YouTube channel.