{
  "id": 6777428,
  "title": "DTM Sachsenring: Porsche leads free practice, BMW surprises, track raises questions",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/dtm-sachsenring-porsche-leads-free-practice-bmw-surprises-track",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-11T17:00:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Motorsport.com",
    "slug": "motorsport-com",
    "url": "https://www.motorsport.com/dtm/news/dtm-sachsenring-practice-porsche-leads-bmw-surprises-track-raises-questions/10854648/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The penultimate weekend of the DTM season at the Sachsenring saw a surprising performance from BMW drivers. While Porsche's Thomas Preining set the fastest time in the first practice session with a 1:18.148, BMW's Kelvin van der Linde was only 0.087 seconds behind in second place. This defied the track's reputation for being a challenging venue for BMW. However, the surprise was not over as van der Linde experienced a scare when he narrowly missed hitting the slow-moving Audi guest starter Simon Connor Primm during the closing stages of second practice. The event also marked the DTM debut for Audi team Seyffarth, with their 21-year-old driver Simon Connor Primm finishing 18th. Despite the rookie's first outing in a GT3 car on the demanding rollercoaster circuit, he completed 48 laps and had three new sets of tires available. The victory was not without challenges for the team, who only had a short time to practice tyre changes due to their lack of experience with performance stops.",
  "summary": "An unusual start to the penultimate weekend of the DTM season at the Sachsenring: Thomas Preining set the fastest time of the day in the favoured Porsche with a 1:18.148. However, not with his time from the second session, but from the first practice. In the afternoon, Manthey team-mate Ricardo Feller was fastest with a 1:18.857 - and more than 0.7 seconds slower. But why did the track not ...…",
  "key_points": [
    "Porsche's Thomas Preining leads free practice with 1:18.148",
    "BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde surprisingly second",
    "Audi rookie Simon Connor Primm finishes 18th in debut"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}