The end of the first day of official ITR testing for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, saw Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green at the top of the timesheets in his Hoffmann Group RS5 DTM.
The British driver set the pace with a time of 1m 32.774 seconds around the 4.182-km circuit, which was four tenths quicker than that of 2013 DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller. The Team Phoenix driver had been the quickest that morning, having posted his fastest time then, but had covered the most mileage of the day, racking up an impressive 156 laps.
Paul Di Resta, who posted the third fastest time of the day for Mercedes-AMG, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, said that the work was productive, despite the fact that it was his only day behind the wheel of this year’s C63 AMG.
“The wind made things very difficult,” said the Scot. “We tried to get through as much of our programme as possible, but we still have a job on our hands to optimise the car. I’m curious to see what happens.”
Double champion Mattias Esktröm rounded out the top five, with 2012 Champion Bruno Spengler being the fastest of the BMW drivers, half a second off from Green’s time.
The latest drivers to join the ranks of the DTM in the Mercedes stable, Lucas Auer and Maximillian Götz, were within eight tenths of the fastest time of the day, ahead of Audi’s Adrien Tambay.
BMW’s Augusto Farfus, Martin Tomczyk and Maxime Martin were at the back of the pack, in terms of times, with the top eleven drivers being within a second of each other. Audi Sport covered the most in terms of laps with 563, with BMW on 490 and Mercedes on 356.
The test wil continue for the next two days, before the teams and drivers head to Oschersleben just three weeks before the season opener in May.
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 127 | 1:32.774 | |
| 2 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 156 | 1:33.173 | 0.399 |
| 3 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 98 | 1:33.202 | 0.428 |
| 4 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
gooix AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 94 | 1:33.242 | 0.468 |
| 5 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 147 | 1:33.269 | 0.495 |
| 6 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 98 | 1:33.278 | 0.504 |
| 7 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 71 | 1:33.470 | 0.696 |
| 8 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 93 | 1:33.510 | 0.736 |
| 9 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 133 | 1:33.519 | 0.745 |
| 10 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 112 | 1:33.585 | 0.811 |
| 11 | 77 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 137 | 1:33.755 | 0.981 |
| 12 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 143 | 1:34.087 | 1.313 |