Prémat fastest in Barcelona warm up

The stick has been turned around in warm-up at the Circuit de Catalunya. After rain in qualifying, the warm-up session in the morning took place in dry conditions. In the first eight positions, there were six Audi A4 DTMs and only two AMG Mercedes C-Classes. In qualifying on Saturday, it was exactly the other way round. Alexandre Prémat beat Bruno Spengler in the battle for the top position by 0.050 seconds. Mike Rockenfeller was third, only nine thousandths of a second down on the Franco-Canadian. The top trio was followed by Timo Scheider, Mattias Ekström, Tom Kristensen, Bernd Schneider and Christian Abt.

In the 30 minutes’ session on Sunday morning, the 20 DTM drivers completed an unusual high number of laps at the 2.977 kilometres long lay-out of the Catalan Grand Prix circuit. Prémat and Ekström drove 27 laps each, equalling a total distance of 80.379 kilometres. Markus Winkelhock, struck with ‘flu, drove 20 laps with the Audi A4 DTM. Initially, his team Futurecom TME had planned to save the 27 year old German for the race.

Martin Tomczyk, who will be starting first into this afternoon’s race, only was tenth fastest in the dry warm-up session. This promises a lot of excitement for the ninth DTM round. The race will start at 14.00 h, the ARD will be broadcasting live from 13.45 h.