Audi fastest on first day of testing at Estoril
The second official pre season test for the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters started yesterday at the Portuguese circuit of Estoril. Audi Sport dominated the time sheets, with Jamie Green being fastest.
Green, at the wheel of the number 58 Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM, completed 127 laps with a best time of 1:32.774. 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller was second, 0.399 seconds slower than the Briton.
Paul Di Resta and Pascal Wehrlein followed in their Mercedes C-Coupé DTMs, having completed 98 and 94 laps respectively, and only separated by 4 hundredths of a second. Estoril also saw the first on track contact of Mercedes’ rookies Lucas Auer and Maximilian Götz, who finished the day seventh and eighth.
Bruno Spengler was the fastest among the BMW M4 DTMs in sixth position, over half a second off the pace, in a day of setup work for the Bavarian manufacturer.
The main novelty yesterday was the organisers testing big front windscreen race numbers, in a search for an easy identification method for spectators. The number occupies nearly half of the space available, using a see-through vinyl to allow a full view from the cockpit. A similar solution was tested in the WTCC Race of Macau back in 2013, but the idea was finally dropped in favour of smaller numbers.
The DTM teams and drivers are due to remain in Estoril for two further days to complete the second pre season testing of 2015.
