Christian Vietoris leads Mercedes 1-2 in first free practice

Mücke Motorsport’s Christian Vietoris was fastest in the first Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters free practice session at the Nürburgring this afternoon (Friday, September 9th), leading HWA’s Robert Wickens in a Mercedes 1-2 with a 1:23.838 around the 3.629-km circuit.

The Canadian, who is one of five drivers in the title hunt, was 0.078 seconds behind Vietoris after the end of the 30-minute session, with his chief rival, BMW Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann a mere 0.006 seconds behind, rounding out the top three.

Team ART’s Gary Paffett initially led the session from both Wittmann and Timo Glock, before Wickens jumped out in front after nine minutes.

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Paffett’s team mate, Felix Rosenqvist, had a great session in only his second DTM race weekend, as the Swede went second fastest with four minutes remaining, before Vietoris went fastest with two minutes to go.

Rosenqvist was just 0.154 seconds off the pace set by Vietoris, but was marginally faster than Audi Sport’s Edoardo Mortara, who was fifth. Both Nico Müller and Timo Scheider made it three drivers from Ingolstadt in the top ten, posting the sixth and eighth fastest times respectively, whilst Paul Di Resta was between the Audi pair.

Paffett ended up ninth fastest, making it five Mercedes in the top ten, with Team MTEK’s Augusto Farfus taking tenth spot ahead of Glock by 0.054 seconds, in a session that saw the top 22 drivers separated by 0.869 seconds.

2015 race winner Maxime Martin was 12th fastest, whilst 2014 race winner Miguel Molina was just 0.014 seconds behind the Belgian, as Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green found himself in 17th place.

Martin Tomczyk, who announced that he is leaving the DTM after 16 years in the series, was 1.200 seconds off the pace down in 23rd place, ahead of Audi’s Adrien Tambay and behind Team Schnitzer teammate António Félix da Costa.

Second free practice at the Nurburgring starts at 10:45 CEST (BST +1), lasting for 30 minutes.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	8	Christian VIETORIS		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	17	1:23.838	0.000
2	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	17	1:23.916	0.078
3	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	17	1:23.922	0.084
4	88	Felix ROSENQVIST		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	17	1:23.992	0.154
5	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	22	1:24.044	0.206
6	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	20	1:24.093	0.255
7	3	Paul di RESTA		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	19	1:24.141	0.303
8	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:24.170	0.332
9	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	18	1:24.261	0.423
10	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	22	1:24.270	0.432
11	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	19	1:24.324	0.486
12	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	16	1:24.435	0.597
13	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	20	1:24.449	0.611
14	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	22	1:24.468	0.630
15	22	Lucas AUER		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	19	1:24.472	0.634
16	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:24.525	0.687
17	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:24.637	0.799
18	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	18	1:24.644	0.806
19	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	16	1:24.662	0.824
20	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	18	1:24.670	0.832
21	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	16	1:24.678	0.840
22	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:24.707	0.869
23	100	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	18	1:25.038	1.200
24	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	19	1:25.049	1.211