Nico Müller tops Nürburgring final practice

Audi Sport’s Nico Müller posted the fastest time of all 24 drivers in the final free practice session for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) at the Nürburgring, as all brands were represented in the top three.

The Swiss driver posted his best time of a 1:23.375 around the 3.629-km circuit with around 80 seconds remaining, 0.151 seconds ahead of Team ART’s Gary Paffett and Team RBM’s Maxime Martin, with all three drivers split by 0.230 seconds.

Team Abt’s Edoardo Mortara and Team Phoenix’s Timo Scheider completed the top five, as seven RS5 DTMs finished the 30-minute session in the top ten.

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The only other Mercedes driver in the top ten was Mücke Motorsport’s Lucas Auer, who celebrates his 22^nd birthday today, setting the sixth fastest time of the session, 0.379 seconds off the pace set by Müller.

Mike Rockenfeller brought the second Audi of Ernst Moser’s outfit up to seventh place on the timesheets at the team’s home race, with Miguel Molina, Mattias Ekström and Adrien Tambay completing the top ten.

It was a disastrous time for title contender Robert Wickens, who had to watch from the sidelines, after the right rear wheel came loose on his Mercedes with 19 minutes of the session remaining, bringing out the only Slow Zone of the session.

The Canadian, who is 35 points behind Wittmann in the title fight, recorded a 1:25.570 after just four laps of running the practice session, 2.195 seconds off the pace.

Team Schnitzer’s António Félix da Costa was the next best of the BMW drivers in 11^th, ahead of Wittmann, with Jamie Green 0.033 seconds slower than the current points leader in 13th.

Daniel Juncadella and Christian Vietoris were in the top ten for the majority of the session, but ended up 14^th and 15^th respectively.

Paul Di Resta’s title charge could soon be coming to an end, as the Scot was 20^th fastest in the session, 0.862 seconds slower than Müller’s best time.

Qualifying for the 14^th race of the 2016 DTM season gets underway at 12:50 CEST (BST + 1), lasting for 20 minutes.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	15	1:23.375	0.000
2	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	14	1:23.526	0.151
3	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	15	1:23.605	0.230
4	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:23.660	0.285
5	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	17	1:23.684	0.309
6	22	Lucas AUER		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	18	1:23.754	0.379
7	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	15	1:23.756	0.381
8	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	15	1:23.775	0.400
9	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	17	1:23.843	0.468
10	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	14	1:23.998	0.623
11	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	13	1:24.030	0.655
12	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	13	1:24.033	0.658
13	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	15	1:24.066	0.691
14	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	12	1:24.092	0.717
15	8	Christian VIETORIS		BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	16	1:24.138	0.763
16	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	15	1:24.148	0.773
17	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	15	1:24.217	0.842
18	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	16	1:24.235	0.860
19	3	Paul di RESTA		Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	18	1:24.237	0.862
20	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	12	1:24.357	0.982
21	100	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	16	1:24.448	1.073
22	88	Felix ROSENQVIST		EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	18	1:24.457	1.082
23	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	14	1:24.473	1.098
24	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	4	1:25.570	2.195