Brazilian Augusto Farfus led home a BMW one-two in the first day of running of the DTM’s first and only official running before the season begins. At the Hockenheimring the former WTCC driver put in a lap that clocked in at 1:33.326 to finish above fellow BMW driver Maxime Martin and the rest of the 12 strong field running today.
Each of the three manufacturers ran 4 of their 8 drivers today. The line ups are then rotated so each of the 24 drivers get 2 days of action in the 4 day test.
After the first two spots occupied by BMW, Audi took 3rd to 5th place with Muller, Molina and Scheider landing the places. Martin Tomczyk came sixth after causing a red flag in the final hour of the evening session with the final Audi of Adrien Tambay coming in seventh.
Ready to rumble… Sneak peek at the DTM test at Hockenheim. pic.twitter.com/QrUeG6otUm
— BMW Motorsport (@BMWMotorsport) April 5, 2016
Mercedes had a bad day at the F1 circuit. However Mercedes were more focused on their setup for their new car. The new AMG C 63 Coupe in only it’s second test filled the 8th to 11th place spots with last year’s GP3 championship winner Esteban Ocon coming in tenth. Timo Glock did not go out in the evening session after causing a red flag in the morning session.
Nico Muller was happy with Audi’s performance in the test: “I’m pretty happy with how the day went, obviously the conditions could have been a bit better, there was a lot of wet running, which was good, but there was also some mixed running with the damp track, and that was a bit of lost time. When the conditions were good we were gathering lots of useful information, so I would say it has been a good start for 2016.”
Testing resumes tomorrow with the other four drivers from each manufacturer taking to the Hockenheim track.
