Edoardo Mortara fastest again in second free practice

Audi’s Edoardo Mortara went quickest in the dying seconds of the second free practice session for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) at the Hockenheimring this morning, ahead of stablemate Jamie Green and BMW’s Tom Blomqvist.

A drying track saw a lot of the drivers switch to slick tyres, where the current qualifying record from last year was bettered in the process. Mortara was faster than Green by 0.102 seconds, with  Blomqvist just a further 0.022 seconds down.

Audi’s Timo Scheider, who is now in Team Phoenix for a second season, was fourth, ahead of Abt Audi’s Mattias Ekström.

Despite Paul Di Resta being in the top three for most of the session, the Brit ended up 11th, as Pascal Wehrlein was the fastest for Mercedes in eighth.

Miguel Molina showed his speed for most of the session, as last year’s Audi pole sitter at the Hockenheim finale was seventh, just behind Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann. 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller and Augusto Farfus completed the top ten, just 0.360 seconds off the pace.

Robert Wickens had a difficult session, as the Canadian only completed just seven laps over the course of the 45 minute session, placing last, nearly six seconds off the pace in his Mercedes. Lucas Auer placed just ahead of him, but was 1.740 seconds off the pace set by Mortara.

The top 22 drivers were split by less than a second this morning, ahead of the first Saturday qualifying session of the year, which takes place at 12:00 CEST today (11.00 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	18	1:32.672	0.000
2	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	17	1:32.774	0.102
3	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	21	1:32.796	0.124
4	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:32.806	0.134
5	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	17	1:32.826	0.154
6	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:32.843	0.171
7	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	18	1:32.904	0.232
8	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	19	1:32.962	0.290
9	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:32.984	0.312
10	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	23	1:33.032	0.360
11	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	18	1:33.034	0.362
12	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	23	1:33.042	0.370
13	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	20	1:33.161	0.489
14	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	20	1:33.162	0.490
15	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	20	1:33.171	0.499
16	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:33.203	0.531
17	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	24	1:33.204	0.532
18	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:33.229	0.557
19	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	17	1:33.262	0.590
20	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	24	1:33.543	0.871
21	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	20	1:33.572	0.900
22	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:33.612	0.940
23	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	22	1:34.412	1.740
24	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	7	1:38.607	5.935

Complete session results.