Martin Tomczyk fastest in first test
The battle for the title in the DTM-final at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg has started – Martin Tomczyk made the first mark in the first test on Friday morning with the Audi A4 DTM. The driver from Rosenheim lapped the 4.574 kilometres long track in 1.33.825 minutes, which made him 0.436 seconds faster than second-placed Daniel la Rosa with the 2006-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class. Markus Winkelhock was third, 0.512 seconds down on Tomczyk’s fastest lap time.
While Mercedes-Benz driver Bruno Spengler was fourth after the 85 minutes’ test, things weren’t going that well for Mattias Ekström: the Swede, currently the points leader in the DTM with 44 points, didn’t do any better than 13th place. He was 1.015 seconds short of the fastest lap time set by his team-mate Tomczyk.
Tom Kristensen was sixth after the first test from reigning champion Bernd Schneider. The Audi duo Timo Scheider and Mike Rockenfeller were sixth and seventh respectively from Mathias Lauda and Alexandros Margaritis, both with Mercedes-Benz.
Jamie Green, who celebrated his maiden DTM victory at the Circuit de Catalunya three weeks ago, drove the highest number of laps: 32, the fastest one of which in 1.34.879 minutes, which was good for 15th place. The second test on Friday will start at 14.30 h.
