Photo: DTM Media

Christian Vietoris leads Zandvoort FP3 ahead of a chasing pack of Audis

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Christian Vietoris was fastest of all in the third practice session of the weekend in his Mücke Motorsport Mercedes C63 DTM, but Audi Sport appeared to have found more pace from the RS 5 overnight, thanks in part to the post-qualifying performance weights, with Miguel Molina leading a chasing brace of five Audis.

Yesterday’s race winner Robert Wickens set the pace during the first part of the session, until Race 1 podium-finisher Vietoris turned up the wick at the half-way mark and produced a time of 1:31.569 in his C63, at that point almost a second faster than the rest of the field.

Within the last ten minutes the Audis, which had been propping up the back end of the time sheets until this point, suddenly jumped to the other end of the table, with Mattias Ekström the first to feature in the top ten in his RS 5, closing to within three-tenths of a second of Vietoris’s time.

Ekström’s Audi Sport Abt team-mates Miguel Molina and Nico Müller then both jumped ahead into second and third positions, while the Rosberg Audi of Jamie Green moved up to fifth ahead of the Abt Audi of Edoardo Mortara, leaving yesterday’s show-runner Wickens to finish the session down in seventh.

Paul di Resta was eighth fastest in the HWA Mercedes C63 ahead of the fastest of the BMWs, which this time was Bruno Spengler in the MTEK-run car, with the Phoenix Audi of Timo Scheider completing the top ten.

The fastest BMW from yesterday of Marco Wittmann finished the 30-minute session down in 17th position, with Gary Paffett down in 21st in the ART Mercedes after finishing just off the podium on Saturday.

René Rast, who is replacing the injured Adrien Tambay at the last minute, finished the session 24th and last, but was just three-hundredths of a second slower than the BMW of António Félix Da Costa.

Qualifying for Race 2 is next and takes place at 11:20 CET.