Fastest time for Paul di Resta in final Norisring practice

Mercedes’ Paul di Resta posted the fastest time in the third and final practice session for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Norisring, ahead of Audi duo Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström.

Scot Di Resta hit the top of the times in the closing seconds of the session to pip Scheider to the best time of the morning, which was just 0.038 seconds slower than the best lap by Christian Vietoris in Saturday qualifying, the quickest yet achieved in the weekend.

Scheider, who finished outside the points in Saturday’s race due to qualifying in 19^th on Saturday, had been inside the top ten times throughout the session, before briefly going fastest in the closing seconds and being pipped by Di Resta at the end.

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Ekström continued to show promising pace in third, although wherever he qualifies for race two the Swede will be hit with a three-place grid penalty for causing the controversial race-defining incident in Saturday’s first race.

Lucas Auer was the next-best Mercedes driver in fourth, ahead of the leading BMW of local Marco Wittmann in fifth, who had himself briefly enjoyed a spell at the top of the times early in the session.

Brit Gary Paffett improved on his Saturday pace to end the session in sixth, ahead of Audi’s race one winner Edoardo Mortara in seventh, and Mike Rockenfeller in eighth.

Maxime Martin was the only other BMW driver to break the top ten in ninth, with Adrien Tambay completing in tenth and making it five Audi’s in the top ten in the process.

There were no major incidents in the session, although a number of drivers brushed the walls at Turn 3 as is the norm for the Norisring street circuit. All 24 drivers were covered by less than seven tenths of a second.

Qualifying for race two takes place at 10:50 CEST (09:50 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	3	Paul di RESTA		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	27	48.182	0.000
2	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	30	48.216	0.034
3	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	25	48.239	0.057
4	22	Lucas AUER		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	28	48.296	0.114
5	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	24	48.297	0.115
6	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	27	48.316	0.134
7	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	28	48.340	0.158
8	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	29	48.348	0.166
9	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	25	48.394	0.212
10	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	29	48.399	0.217
11	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	31	48.405	0.223
12	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	29	48.406	0.224
13	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	25	48.424	0.242
14	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	21	48.432	0.250
15	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	24	48.457	0.275
16	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	30	48.465	0.283
17	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	26	48.483	0.301
18	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	24	48.546	0.364
19	34	Esteban OCON		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	29	48.566	0.384
20	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	28	48.574	0.392
21	100	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	26	48.667	0.485
22	8	Christian VIETORIS		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	30	48.793	0.611
23	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	24	48.818	0.636
24	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	24	48.841	0.659