Pascal Wehrlein dominates last official test at Oschersleben
Thursday marked the last day of testing ahead of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season opener in Hockenheim in two weeks’ time. Mercedes AMG driver Pascal Wehrlein was the reference man today, setting the second fastest time of all three days.
Wehrlein completed 144 laps, to score a best time of 1:19.952 in the morning session, to finish the day just 0.038 seconds ahead of reigning champion Marco Wittmann who set the fastest lap of the three days back on Tuesday.
Augusto Farfus finished third overall for BMW, having completed 127 laps, with a best time of 1:20.035, set in the afternoon. The Brazilian was just ahead of team mate António Félix Da Costa, who did a special long run in the afternoon in his BMW M4 DTM.
Birthday man Paul Di Resta was fifth, just 0.252 seconds off the pace, followed by BMW’s Bruno Spengler. The 2012 champion was the busiest man on track today, completing 171 laps, finishing 0.256 seconds off Wehrlein’s time.
Adrian Tambay was Audi’s fastest man in seventh place in his RS 5 DTM, ahead of team mates Jamie Green, Miguel Molina, Mike Rockenfeller and Edoardo Mortara, who only run in the afternoon. In total, the men from Ingolstadt completed over 5,600 kilometers of testing, focusing on preparations for the new racing weekend format.
Lucas Auer and Daniel Juncadella closed the classification for Mercedes, having put their efforts into pit stop practice and race setup.
Ulrich Fritz, Mercedes AMG DTM Team Principal, was upbeat about the testing results: “We rounded off the last week of testing before the season starts with a positive result today. We now need to evaluate all the data before the first race weekend gets under way and continue to work towards Hockenheim in a focused manner. Only at the opening weekend will we then see how competitive we are compared to the other two manufacturers.”
The DTM season opener will take place in Hockenheim from the 1st to the 3rd of May.
