Gary Paffett sets the pace in second Zandvoort practice

Mercedes’ Gary Paffett set the pace in second practice for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at Zandvoort, with the leading BMW of Marco Wittmann 0.180 seconds behind.

With Mercedes’ having dominated much of the session, Paffett went to the top of the times in the closing five minutes to topple stable-mate Daniel Juncadella, who ultimately ended up third fastest after BMW’s former champion Wittmann split the pair in the final minutes.

Mattias Ekström ended the session in fourth as the leading Audi driver, with the Ingolstadt marque struggling for pace around the circuit in the Dutch sand dunes.

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Maximilian Götz put in a strong session to finish fifth, leaving three Mercedes in the top five at the end of the short half-hour session.

BMW only managed to get two other drivers into the top ten at the end of the session, with RBM’s Tom Blomqvist ending up in sixth, ahead of RMG’s Timo Glock in seventh.

Nico Müller was the only other Audi driver to crack the top ten in eighth, just over half a second off the pace, ahead of a quartet of Mercedes’ drivers.

Christian Vietoris, who was warned about not going slowly enough through an earlier ‘slow zone’, was ninth, with Brit team-mate Paul di Resta completing the top ten, ahead of Lucas Auer and Friday’s pace-setter Robert Wickens.

The earlier slow zone had been called when the Mercedes of Esteban Ocon, who ended up 16^th and the slowest of the Stuttgart marques eight cars, put his car in the gravel at Turn 7.

Eleven of the bottom twelve places were occupied by BMW and Audi cars, with the latter in particular struggling for speed, with four of its drivers over a second off the pace. In total all 24 drivers were covered by 1.161 seconds.

Qualifying takes place at 15:45 CEST (14:45 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1:31.497	0.000
2	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	14	1:31.677	0.180
3	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	14	1:31.820	0.323
4	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:31.846	0.349
5	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	12	1:31.866	0.369
6	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	12	1:31.937	0.440
7	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	13	1:31.995	0.498
8	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:32.039	0.542
9	8	Christian VIETORIS		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	14	1:32.080	0.583
10	3	Paul di RESTA		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	13	1:32.102	0.605
11	22	Lucas AUER		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	14	1:32.162	0.665
12	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1:32.234	0.737
13	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	11	1:32.234	0.737
14	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	12	1:32.332	0.835
15	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	13	1:32.386	0.889
16	34	Esteban OCON		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1:32.393	0.896
17	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:32.477	0.980
18	100	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	12	1:32.484	0.987
19	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	10	1:32.501	1.004
20	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1:32.516	1.019
21	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	13	1:32.596	1.099
22	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:32.599	1.102
23	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	15	1:32.610	1.113
24	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	12	1:32.658	1.161