DTM | 2026 Zandvoort | Free Practice 2 | Cairoli completes Friday sweep as he tops the times again

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DTM Free Practice 2 at Zandvoort followed an opening session led by Matteo Cairoli, who put Emil Frey Racing Ferrari on top with a 1:34.289.

Ferrari showed strong early pace, with Cairoli and home driver Thierry Vermeulen running at the front before Thomas Preining, Lucas Auer and Kelvin van der Linde also moved into contention. Lamborghini also appeared more competitive than at the Red Bull Ring, while teams used the final minutes for pit stop practice.

FP1 was not without drama, as Timo Glock went through the gravel, Arjun Maini returned to the garage with a front-left fire, and Marco Mapelli spun but continued. Mapelli had also received a €1,000 fine and suspended drive-through penalty before the session for breaching Zandvoort test regulations.

Dörr tops delayed DTM Free Practice 2 as Lamborghini shows strong pace at Zandvoort

DTM Free Practice 2 in Zandvoort started with a slight delay as the track needed to be cleaned after a session of one of the supporting series. Once again the track went green for the 45-minute Free Practice session, the last one ahead of the first qualifying the next day. While all the cars went out on the track, Mapelli seemed to have a problem as his ABT Lamborghini Temerario got pushed back into his garage. As the drivers started to put in fast laps Luca Engstler took the top spot coming close to the best time of Free Practice 1 with a 1:34.832. Though Ben Dörr went faster with a gap of 0.342 seconds to Engstler.

Cairloi, the fastest of FP1 put his name into contention again as he went third fastest around the Dutch track. With Mirko Bortolotti right behind him, showing the potential speed of the Lamborghini’s, while Thierry Vermeulen again in P5. Though the top time of the day from earlier wasn’t beaten at DTM Free Practice 2 in Zandvoort.

Mapelli bounces back after ABT repairs as FP2 resumes following red flag

With half an hour left on the clock, ABT appeared to have solved the issue on Mapelli’s Lamborghini, allowing the Italian rookie to head out on track and collect valuable data for the team. With 25 minutes remaining, race control red-flagged DTM Free Practice 2 at Zandvoort due to oil on track. All drivers returned to the pits while marshals cleaned the circuit. While the clock goes on as normal during a practice session, the oil came from the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Temerario driven by Maximilian Paul.

Though the time went on, race control added an extra 5 minutes as the track got back to green, meaning there were 23 minutes left on the clock. As the cars started to head back out on track the ABT Lamborghini from Mapelli seemed to work in his favour as he put his car ahead of his teammate and took over P2 still being 0.262 seconds behind Dörr in first.

Preining sets the pace as late qualifying simulations shake up FP2 at Zandvoort

Though the track is back to green a lot of the cars stayed back in the pits before heading out on track. Meanwhile, race control showed another red flag with 17 minutes left on the clock. The track went green again shortly after, but race control brought the session back under red flag conditions with around 16 minutes remaining. With 13 minutes left the track went back green with all the cars going back on track trying to gain as much data as possible before qualifying the next day.

As DTM Free Practice 2 continued in Zandvoort, teams expected drivers to try and beat their times from the first practice session earlier in the day, almost like a qualifying simulation. With Preining and Auer setting the example as the Porsche driver put himself in P1 with the fastest time of the day so far with a 1:34.259, and Auer following up in P3. Though the McLaren’s showed their pace as Timo Glock and Dörr went into P2 and P3 only to be split up by the Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel. Only Paul stayed in the garage as the Grasser Racing Team tried to resolve the issue.

Cairoli strikes late to complete Friday sweep as Ferrari leads FP2 in Zandvoort

With the last 4 minutes of DTM Free Practice 2 in Zandvoort the timing sheet changed quite a lot as improvements from the drivers that went slower in the beginning of this session started to show. Meanwhile Bortolotti almost went into the barriers, though he could control his car, only going through the gravel as he set his Lamborghini up into P3 shortly after. After FP1 earlier, Cairoli showed the pace of his Ferrari again as he went into P1 with a 1:33.803 and a gap of 0.456 seconds to Preining.

While Cairoli set one fastest sector after another no one could top his time putting him back in the top spot after already being fastest in Free Practice 1. Dörr and Preining finished the top 3 with Bortolotti in P4 showing clear improvement for the Lamborghini after the weekend at the Red Bull Ring.