Excitement is heating up in the battle for the title: can Schneider already make things clear during the first appearance of the DTM at Le Mans, or can Kristensen keep the title race open until the season final at Hockenheim? During the first encounter of the DTM at the 4.180 kilometres long Circuit Bugatti, Tom Kristensen was the first to top the time sheet with his Audi A4 DTM. The Dane, known as the King of Le Mans with seven wins in the 24-hour race, set the fastest lap time in the first test on Friday morning with 1.32.624 minutes ahead of Schneider, who was 0.171 seconds slower than Kristensen on his fastest lap at the short lay-out of the legendary racing circuit.
Thed Björk had a sensational debut in the DTM. The Swede, who is standing in for the injured Nicolas Kiesa at the Audi customer team Futurecom TME this weekend, was third in the first 90 minutes’ test behind the two title candidates. Björk, who completed 33 laps on his first outing with a DTM car, drove a fastest lap time of 1.32.852 and even outpaced his fellow-countryman Mattias Ekström. Björk was only 0.228 seconds short of Kristensen’s fastest time.
Behind the Swedish duo in third and fourth place, Bruno Spengler, Mika Häkkinen and Jamie Green followed in fifth through seventh place. Timo Scheider was the best-placed driver with a 2005-spec car in eighth place. Two more drivers with year-old machinery, Stefan Mücke and Christian Abt, completed the top ten.
- dtm
