Marco Wittmann ended the first day of DTM testing at the Hockenheimring on top of the timesheets, after posting a lap 0.413 seconds faster than fellow BMW driver Martin Tomczyk.
Click here for the full day 1 test times.
After completing 78 laps – the least of any driver – young German Wittmann posted the fastest lap of 1:33.023 during dry morning running at the wheel of team-mate Timo Glock’s car. BMW Team RMG’s Tomczyk was second fastest, almost half a second adrift.
Mercedes’ Gary Paffett finished the session in third, with the Brit recognising that he is now the most experienced Mercedes-Benz driver. “It is great that we have so many young drivers at Mercedes-Benz,” admitted Paffett. “Even though they don’t have a lot of experience yet, I can still learn from them, for instance, when looking at the way they deal with particular sections of the track.”
BMW Team Schnitzer and BMW Team RBM’s Dirk Werner and Augusto Farfus posted the fourth and fifth fastest times respectively. The duo were over a second off Wittmann’s dry pace – although the duo did top the times in the wet afternoon session, which were almost fifteen seconds off the morning pace.
Rookie Mercedes driver Daniel Juncadella was sixth quickest, ahead of the top Audi driver of Mike Rockenfeller. Roberto Merhi posted the eighth fastest time in his Mercedes.
Audi trio Filipe Albuquerque, Jamie Green and Mattias Ekström propped up the time sheets, with both Abt Sportsline drivers more than two seconds off the pace.
DTM testing continues at the Hockenheimring until the end of the week (Friday).