Ekström fastest in first session

The battle for the 2007 DTM title has now officially begun. The time of playing hide-and-seek and sandbagging in pre-season testing is over, from now on, it is serious: the battle between Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Mattias Ekström with his Audi A4 DTM had the best start in the first test of the DTM at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg. In the first encounter of the DTM, the Swede set the first fastest time of the 2007 season.

With his Audi A4 DTM, Ekström lapped the 4.574 kilometres long Grand Prix track in 1:34.761 minutes, which made hum 0.095 seconds quicker than second-placed Daniel La Rosa with his 2006-spec AMG-Mercedes C-Class. Third place in the first test on Friday went to Tom Kristensen. The Dane was 0.159 seconds down on his team-mate. For Ekström, however, setting the fastest time was no reason to be euphoric: “I think that we have to wait for at least three races before we really know what the situation between Audi and Mercedes-Benz will be.”

The DTM-field was well mixed up in the results. Like La Rosa in second place, there were quite a few other rookies and drivers with year-old cars among the front runners. Behind Alexandre Prémat, Timo Scheider (both Audi), Paul di Resta (Mercedes-Benz) and Christian Abt (Audi), Bruno Spengler was the fastest driver with a new AMG-Mercedes C-Class in eighth place.

Susie Stoddart slightly damaged the front section of her AMG Mercedes C-Class while briefly getting off the track. In the closing stages of the session, Lucas Luhr had a brief off as well. The Audi-novice, who is attending a DTM event live for the first time in his life, locked up under braking before the Sachs-hairpin. DTM returnee Gary Paffett and Alexandros Margaritis, who are racing this season together with di Resta at the Persson-team, didn’t go out. “We have already been testing prior to the season at the Hockenheimring already“, said Paffett. “At the moment, the track is still slippery. We will only attack when there is more grip and we save our tyres.”