Werner fastest in first Oschersleben practice

BMW looks strong after the first practice session at Oschersleben, with Dirk Werner topping the timesheet in his E-Postbrief M3. The German was more than two tenths faster than championship leader Gary Paffett, who came second at the end of the session and prevented BMW from scoring a 1-2-3.

Behind the leading duo were the two BMW Team RBM boys, both previous race winners in the past in the World Touring Car Championship at Oschersleben. Augusto Farfus was a tenth slower than the Mercedes and team-mate Andy Priaulx came fourth, just two hundredths of a second slower than the Brazilian. The triple World Champion was also the most active in the field, completing 43 laps during the session.

Timo Scheider emerged as the best-placed Audi, putting his A5 in the top five, half a second slower than Werner, and led a strong group of four drivers, including David Coulthard, title contender Bruno Spengler and Mike Rockenfeller, separated by a mere two hundredths of a second. Adrien Tambay and Christian Vietoris rounded up the top ten.

Jamie Green was the last driver with a less than one second gap from the lead, and finished the session in thirteenth, nine tenths slower than Werner, after only completing 28 laps. Zandvoort race winner Edoardo Mortara was nineteenth, almost 1.3 seconds shy of the lead.

With the track in perfect conditions, only a few mistakes under braking at the first corner were made. The only major incident was a mistake from Roberto Merhi who ended up in the gravel in the second sector and couldn’t continue the session.

The second and final Free Practice session is scheduled for 09.10 CET.