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Brands Hatch day two

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On Tuesday evening – the evening of the second day of the official DTM tests held at Brands Hatch – the top positions on the time sheets were held by Audi drivers. Tom Kristensen, who had already been the quickest in the morning session, also dominated the afternoon.

Once again, he was the only driver to break the 42-second mark and even improved his fastest lap time set in the morning. At the wheel of his Audi A4 DTM, he lapped the 1.973-kilometre circuit in 41.587 seconds, thus being nearly four tenths of a second faster than in the morning session. His brand-mates, Mattias Ekström and Martin Tomczyk, finished second and third respectively but were more than four tenths of a second slower than the Dane.

Fourth to sixth places were also secured by a trio: three AMG-Mercedes C-Class drivers. On the second day of testing, Alexandros Margaritis proved to be the quickest of the Mercedes-Benz squad. The Bonn based driver improved his personal fastest lap time he had set on Tuesday morning by 0.642 seconds and lapped the track in 42.149 seconds, just 0.038 seconds slower than third placed Tomczyk. Daniel la Rosa (42.103 seconds) finished fifth, with Jamie Green, the quickest on Monday, coming sixth.

Rush hour in Brands Hatch: on the second of four days of testing, the 13 DTM drivers testing on Tuesday completed 1320 laps, representing a total mileage of 2,604.36 kilometres, with AMG-Mercedes C-Class driver Daniel la Rosa being the busiest by lapping Indy track of the rich in tradition circuit 132 times.

Once again, Susie Stoddart was the quickest lady, with her AMG-Mercedes C-Class. The Scot finished ninth and was about five tenths of a second quicker than Vanina Ickx (Audi A4 DTM) who came twelfth. Both Stoddart and Ickx completed more than 120 laps, today.

Tom Kristensen (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “The first day in the new car was just great. The only thing I had to adjust was the seat belt. Once again, the mechanics have done a great job. We have been the quickest today and that also represents thanks to the mechanics. Now, they will be just as motivated for the season as I am…”

Alex Margaritis (Truck Store AMG-Mercedes): “We completed our scheduled programme and are truly happy with what we achieved. Second place in the afternoon and fourth in the morning session are good results, but only in the season opener at Hockenheim we will find out the true significance of these results.”

Martin Tomczyk (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “Everything is fine. We made full use of the day and I could drive a lot. I like the Brands Hatch circuit. It’s very demanding and you’ve got nearly no time to relax. Unfortunately, the Indy layout is very short. When it comes to the track length, I’d prefer the Grand Prix circuit.”

1 Kristensen Audi A4 41.587
2 Margaritis Mercedes C-Class +0.516
3 La Rosa Mercedes C-Class +0.562
4 Tomczyk Audi A4 +0.604
5 Ekström Audi A4 +0.650
6 Kaffer Audi A4 +0.651
7 Schneider Mercedes C-Class +0.690
8 Stoddart Mercedes C-Class +0.705
9 Scheider Audi A4 +0.731
10 Lauda Mercedes C-Class +1.015
11 Ickx Mercedes C-Class +1.259
12 Stippler Audi A4 +1.340
13 Green Mercedes C-Class +1.399