BMW’s Bruno Spengler posted the fastest time in morning practice for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters around the Norisring, to beat a Septet of Audi drivers to the top spot.
Click here for the full practice times.
A late lap by the Canadian denied Audi the top time by just 0.004 seconds, with the session having been dominated throughout by the Audi’s of Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekström. In fact Spengler’s lap of 48.427 was a lap record for the Norisring.
Late laps by Adrien Tambay, who went second, and Filipe Albuquerque, who ended the session in fourth, demoted Ekström. Edoardo Mortara finished the session in third, just over a tenth of a second off the pace.
Team Abt’s Timo Scheider was fifth fastest, ahead of the Phoenix Racing duo of Miguel Molina and joint championship leader Mike Rockenfeller. Ekström ended the session in eighth, 0.276 seconds off Spengler’s time.
Andy Priaulx was the second-fastest BMW driver in ninth, ahead of BMW Team RMG team-mate Martin Tomczyk in tenth. BMW Team RBM’s Joey Hand and Augusto Farfus were 11th and 12th.
The top Mercedes-Benz driver was Robert Wickens down in 13th place, with the Silver Arrows once again struggling for outright single-lap pace.
Jamie Green, who has won around the Norisring for four out of the last five years, struggled during practice and was 16th – the only Audi driver outside the top eight.
Mercedes’ top driver in the championship, Gary Paffett, also struggled and could only manage the 18th-fastest lap.
All 22 drivers were covered by less than a second, with 22nd-placed Roberto Merhi 0.966 seconds off the fastest time.
Qualifying takes place at 13:40 and can be watched live outside Germany at www.youtube.com/dtmint.