Bruno Spengler masters the rain to dominate second practice

BMW Motorsport was fastest again this morning, in a wet second free practice session ran in the Moscow Raceway, host to the sixth round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. Bruno Spengler took advantage of improving track conditions to set the fastest time.

Rain had been falling during the night and the early morning, but it stopped just before the beginning of the second free practice session. The drivers had to use wet weather tyres, but lap times improved constantly.

The session started with Audi’s Edoardo Mortara setting the first reference time, with a lap of 1:44.893, which was quickly improved by his team-mate Miguel Molina. Soon Gary Paffett stole the top spot for Mercedes, before being improved by team-mates Pascal Wehrlein, Maximilian Götz and Robert Wickens.

Audi’s rookie Antonio Giovinazzi, who’s taking excluded Timo Scheider’s seat this weekend, seemed to be getting on well with the changing conditions, and shoot to second place momentarily.

With 20 minutes left on the clock, Audi’s Miguel Molina went fastest on slick tyres, with a time of 1:40.386. The Spaniard reported wet patches on sector 2, but was still able to get ahead of the competition.

This was the green light for the rest of the field to do the same, and soon it was Bruno Spengler, who would take his BMW M4 DTM to the top of the classification with a best lap of 1:39.820.

Soon enough, rain started falling over the Moscow Raceway again, stopping any chance of lap time improvements.

In the end, Bruno Spengler remained fastest, followed by Miguel Molina and Robert Wickens.

Maxime Martin was fourth for BMW, albeit 1.175 seconds off the pace, with standings leader Mattias Ekström in fifth, followed by Gary Paffett. Jamie Green was seventh for Audi.

The Mercedes AMG contingent of Christian Vietoris, Daniel Juncadella and Maximilian Götz closed the top 10. Antonio Giovinazzi was 11th, followed by team-mates at Audi Edoardo Mortara and Nico Müeller.

The traditional minimal differences among the DTM competitors were not so this morning due to the changing track conditions.

Next for the DTM is the qualifying for Race 1, scheduled for 13:00 CEST (GMT + 2).