Nicola Baldan set the fastest time in his Audi RS 3 LMS at Hockenheim, with the AIKOA Racing driver leading the way ahead of the Honda of Ruben Volt, and the rival Audi of points leader Teddy Clairet in the final 30-minute practice session of the weekend.

 The Italian set a time that put him fastest of 1:48.812 with just under ten minutes to go, before improving again with a time of 1:48.570 to ensure he finished the session at the head of the leaderboard.

Ruben Volt was the closest competitor in his ALM Motorsport Honda, just over two-tenths of a second from Baldan’s pace, while a late improvement from Teddy Clairet saw the current points leader finish the session third, despite carrying the maximum 40kg of compensation weight after his success in Spa, a little under three tenths of a second away.

Marco Butti, who had led the morning’s first session, was fourth quickest, though a number of the MM Motorsport Honda driver’s lap times were deleted during the session due to track limits violations at Turn 1.

Felipe Fernández finished the session fifth quickest in his RC2 Racing Team Honda, a little over half a second off the pace.

With the second fastest time overall, Volt was the fastest driver from the young drivers’ trophy category, while the fastest Diamond trophy contender was Jean-Laurent Navarro, setting the 15th fastest time in his JSB Compétition Hyundai Elantra N TCR.

The next session of the weekend is qualifying, which gets underway at 09:10 CEST tomorrow morning.