DTM heads to the Nurburgring for the first half of a double-header at the legendary track located in the Eifel. Running the Grand Prix layout this weekend, Nico Mueller ended today with the fastest time.
This afternoon’s first practice session was a close one with Marco Wittmann and Nico Mueller joint fastest – both setting a 1:48.113. Wittmann was the first to set the time, so he officially ended in the first place. BMW’s Timo Glock finished third, continuing his good pace from last Sunday’s wet Assen race. Robin Frijns, Jamie Green, Loic Duval and Mike Rockenfeller finished fourth to seventh. The top ten was completed by an Austrian trio – BMW’s Philipp Eng, Lucas Auer and WRT’s Ferdinand Habsburg. The gap from Wittmann to Eng was 0.716 seconds. Unfortunately, two-time champion Rene Rast ended the session in 16th place due to tyre issues.
Later that afternoon in the second practice session, Mueller improved his own time to a 1:47.543. Not for the first time this season, he was followed by his Abt Sportsline teammate Frijns – 0.017 seconds behind. The Dutchmann also hopes to continue his Assen pace, after taking his maiden victory. The pair were followed by another two Audi drivers – Rast and Duval. Best of the BMW’s was Wittmann in fifth, 0.326 seconds behind Mueller. Green, Auer and local hero Rockenfeller finished sixth to eighth. Habsburg and Glock rounded out the top ten, five and six tenths behind the Swiss championship leader.
“I still haven’t managed to take the Michael Schumacher S flat out,” Mueller commented after the session. “But that is not where you make the big difference anyway. That is more in the technical part in the first sector where you have to make the car do what you want it to do in order to extract a good lap time. In that respect, I am happy. I didn’t do the S flat, but the rest is pretty good so far. I had a good feeling in the car, we did the work we had to do in FP2. Now, we have to analyse and make sure we are spot-on for Saturday.”
Tomorrow’s qualifying session will start at 10.20 local time (09.20 UK time). The race will start at 13.30 local time (12.30 UK time).
