Day two of the final Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) official test saw Team RBM rookie Tom Blomqvist keep a BMW stranglehold at the top of the timsheets at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
The Brit set his best time of a 1m 20.216 in the afternoon session, just ahead of top Mercedes driver of the day, Gary Paffett, by just under a tenth of a second. Audi’s Mattias Ekström rounded out the top three, with all three brands’ fastest drivers split by just over three tenths of a second.
Paffett, who took the DTM title back in 2005, felt that the past two days of testing had been beneficial ahead of the first race at Hockenheim.
“It’s not an easy track. It’s pretty tough on drivers and cars. We posted lots of long runs and some short runs too, trying out different setups,” said the Suffolk-based driver, who set his best time in the morning session. “I’m very pleased with my test week and am now looking forward to the first race weekend.”
The Swede was also the busiest driver of the day, completing 158 laps around the 3.667-km circuit.
“We basically had a great test. The conditions were good and we tried a lot of different things,” said the 36-year-old. “Fine-tuning is the name of the game in the DTM at the moment. At the end of the day, I’m happy: It was great fun and I’m going home with a good feeling.”
Team Schnitzer’s Martin Tomczyk was just half a tenth of a second behind the Team Abt Sportsline driver, with DTM record breaker Pascal Wehrlein rounding out the top five.
Team RMG’s Maxime Martin, who dominated at Moscow Raceway took sixth, with Timo Glock making it four BMW M4 DTMs in the top seven, with Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green in eighth.
Just over an hour into the morning session, Mücke Motorsport’s Daniel Juncadella brought out the only red flag of the day, but was able to complete 75 laps, posting the 12th fastest time, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller.
Rockenfeller took over from Team Phoenix team mate Timo Scheider for the afternoon session, but the 2013 champion was down at the bottom of the times, just over a second off the pace.
Scheider himself posted the ninth fastest time, ahead of Mercedes’ Paul Di Resta and Team Abt’s Edoardo Mortara.
The final day of official testing starts at 9am local time (CET) tomorrow morning.
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 132 | 1:20.216 | |
| 2 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 146 | 1:20.309 | 0.093 |
| 3 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 158 | 1:20.531 | 0.315 |
| 4 | 77 | Martin TOMCZYK |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 138 | 1:20.578 | 0.362 |
| 5 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
gooix AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 83 | 1:20.622 | 0.406 |
| 6 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 154 | 1:20.640 | 0.424 |
| 7 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 142 | 1:20.804 | 0.588 |
| 8 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 147 | 1:20.906 | 0.690 |
| 9 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 74 | 1:20.984 | 0.768 |
| 10 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 124 | 1:21.010 | 0.794 |
| 11 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 136 | 1:21.021 | 0.805 |
| 12 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
Petronas AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 75 | 1:21.218 | 1.002 |
| 13 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 66 | 1:21.243 | 1.027 |