The DTM is back at Le Mans: after the debut of the most popular international touring car series in 2006, the tenth of eleven rounds is on this weekend. Audi driver Mattias Ekström topped the time sheets after the first encounter at the 4.185 kilometres’ long track lay-out. With his Audi A4 DTM, the Swede lapped the Bugatti circuit in 1:32.822 minutes, which made him 0.048 seconds faster than his fellow Audi driver Tom Kristensen, who had topped the time sheets for quite a while. Bruno Spengler was third fastest with his AMG Mercedes C-Class. At the end of the 90 minutes’ session, the Franco-Canadian was 0.054 seconds down.
In cold, but dry conditions at the traditional circuit at the Sarthe, the two title candidates still did it easy. While points’ leader Timo Scheider ended up fifth behind Jamie Green (Mercedes-Benz), Paul di Resta only ended up eighth with his AMG Mercedes C-Class. Thus, the Scot ranked even behind Katherine Legge with her 2006-spec Audi. After 28 laps, the British lady racer surprised by being only 0.305 seconds slower than fastest driver Ekström. Fastest driver with a year-old car was Markus Winkelhock (Audi) in sixth. With 34 laps each, Green and eleventh-placed Mike Rockenfeller drove the longest distance. The second DTM test starts at 14.35 h.
