The second day of the final Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters test at the Hockenheimring saw Britain’s Gary Paffett top the timesheets around the 4.574-km circuit, with the 2005 champion completing the third highest amount of distance of all nine drivers at the circuit.
BMW RBM rookie Joel Eriksson was second fastest in both morning and afternoon sessions behind the Mercedes driver, whilst the returning Daniel Juncadella, fresh from collarbone surgery, was only just over a tenth of a second slow than Paffett.
2016 runner-up Edoardo Mortara made it three from Stuttgart in the top four, as the Italian set his best effort of a 1:33.095 in the morning’s running, ahead of the Team RMR duo of Germany’s Timo Glock and newcomer Philipp Eng. Mortara also completed the most laps of anyone during the day, totalling 152.
Eng, who is also taking part in BMW Motorsport’s sportscar activities this year alongside his début season in the DTM, was just 0.463 seconds slower than the pace set by Paffett.
René Rast, who will be running with the #33 on his Audi Sport RS5 DTM, was the fastest of the Ingolstadt contingent down in seventh place, even with limited running in the morning.
The defending champion was ahead of both Holland’s Robin Frijns and France’s Loïc Duval, who rounded out the timesheets, as all drivers were separated by 0.982 seconds after the day’s running