Dirk Werner tops Hockenheim free practice for BMW
BMW’s Dirk Werner set the fastest time in the final free practice of the 2013 DTM season at Hockenheim ahead of Audi’s Adrien Tambay, and Schnitzer BMW team-mate, Bruno Spengler.
Werner set his quickest time of 1m33.282s with five minutes of the session remaining to knock Tambay off of top spot.
Marco Wittmann once again impressed in the final race of his first DTM year after finishing fourth ahead of MTEK BMW team-mate and fellow rookie, Timo Glock.
Newly crowned champion Mike Rockenfeller started the 90-minute session in a relatively low key fashion, but finished sixth ahead of fellow Phoenix Audi team-mate, Miguel Molina.
Fellow Audi drivers Edoardo Mortara and Timo Scheider finished ninth and 10th, but with 35 minutes remaining, both drivers were first and second quickest of all 22 runners.
Martin Tomczyk finished an encouraging 10th for RMG BMW, with Jamie Green splitting him from team-mate Andy Priaulx in 12th.
Once again, free practice appeared to point towards a tough weekend for Mercedes.
Robert Wickens went straight on at the Sachs Kurve with just over a minute remaining, and brought out the yellow flags after beaching his C-Coupe in the gravel.
Like at Zandvoort, Gary Paffett was the highest place Mercedes driver in 14th, with Spanish stablemates, Roberto Merhi and Dani Juncadella propping up the time-sheets in 21st and 22nd respectively.
The whole field is separated by 1.877 seconds.
