The final day of the first official Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) test in Estoril saw Audi Sport’s Nico Müller end his schedule in Portugal with the fastest time overall.
The Swiss driver posted a time of 1:32.443, which put his ahead of Team Phoenix’s Timo Scheider. The 2008 and 2009 champion was was second behind Müller, but was faster than Mercedes-AMG’s Gary Paffett, who rounded out the top three.
“It was great for me to be able to test for two full days,” said the Swiss driver, who was o.143 seconds quicker than stablemate Scheider, setting his best time in the morning session. “We don’t have a lot of testing opportunities in the DTM. Obviously, the weather hampered our testing program a little. But the items we checked off were positive.”
Scheider complimented the efforts of Audi over the winter, as he took over from Mike Rockefeller at testing on Thursday afternoon: “This was the first time for me to sit in the RS 5 DTM since the finale at Hockenheim and I immediately felt comfortable. The car is superbly balanced.”
Paffett set his fastest time in the morning, but set the best time in the afternoon. The 2005 Champion enjoyed his first outing with ART GP under test conditions after a long time out of the car: “All in all, it was a very good day. The conditions were quite good – it was sunny – and we put in a lot of laps. We managed to complete some short and long runs. We collected a lot of data and posted some good lap times. I’m very satisfied with the way the day has gone. Now I’m looking forward to the next test at Oschersleben.”
Miguel Molina placed fourth overall, ahead of best placed BMW driver António Félix da Costa, as just fourth tenths of a second covered the top five. Edoardo Mortara, who now has Franco Chiocchetti as his race engineer, posted the sixth fastest time, with a trio of Mercedes drivers behind him in the form of Daniel Juncadella, Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris.
Maxime Martin completed the most laps of the day with 154 to his credit, but posted the tenth fastest lap time, ahead of DTM rookie driver Tom Blomqvist. Timo Glock rounded out the final test in last place.
Blomqvist, who was 1.226 seconds off the pace, explained that the balance of the car was not perfect, but was glad to see improvements coming as the day progressed: “It was a new track to me, but I soon found my feet. Generally speaking, it was helpful for me to have to wait to drive in the sunshine on the final day of testing. However, the wind picked up again in the afternoon.”
With the first test complete, the drivers and teams will now be heading to Oschersleben for the final three days of official pre-season testing, which will take place between the 14th and 16th of April.
Full times – Estoril test day two
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 151 | 1:32.443 | |
| 2 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 108 | 1:32.586 | 0.143 |
| 3 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
EURONICS AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 136 | 1:32.640 | 0.197 |
| 4 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 133 | 1:32.673 | 0.230 |
| 5 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 143 | 1:32.852 | 0.409 |
| 6 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 114 | 1:33.075 | 0.632 |
| 7 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA | |
Petronas AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 108 | 1:33.100 | 0.657 |
| 8 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
FREE MAN’S WORLD AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 114 | 1:33.172 | 0.729 |
| 9 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
Original-Teile AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 101 | 1:33.187 | 0.744 |
| 10 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 154 | 1:33.236 | 0.793 |
| 11 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 130 | 1:33.669 | 1.226 |
| 12 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 118 | 1:33.721 | 1.278 |