With his Audi A4 DTM, Martin Tomczyk was fastest in free practice of the DTM at the Nürburgring. With a lap time of 1.38.621 minutes, the driver from Rosenheim outpaced his team-mate Mattias Ekström by 0.087. At the 3.629 kilometres long sprint circuit of the traditional circuit, Timo Scheider was third while Bruno Spengler was the best-placed driver with an AMG Mercedes C-Class in fourth place, 0.218 seconds down on Tomczyk. Alexandre Prémat, who had set the fastest time of the day on Friday, was fifth on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, conditions in the Eifel were again changeable. Rain set in some 20 minutes into the session, but towards the end the sun emerged again and the track dried out. Temperature ranged around 14 degrees C.
Competition was close in the 60 minutes’ session. From Tomczyk down to Mathias Lauda (AMG Mercedes C-Class) in 16th place, the drivers were separated by only 0.993 seconds. Susie Stoddart showed a strong performance, claiming eleventh place, 0.722 seconds down. Two times’ Formula 1 world champion Mika Häkkinen had a big moment: after the Finn spun coming onto the main straight, Daniel la Rosa had a hard time steering his C-Class around Häkkinen’s car. Mika continued his ride. The fastest one of his total of 22 laps was enough for tenth place.
For the first time, qualifying of the DTM will be broadcast live on the internet. Fans of the most popular international touring car series can watch the battle for the best grid positions on Saturday from 13.20 h onwards at the series’ official website, www.dtm.com
- DTM
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