Miguel Molina looks forward to a challenging weekend

The first session of the 2015 DTM season took place this afternoon under wet weather conditions in Hockenheim today, with Audi dominating the lap times. Miguel Molina starts his sixth season in the series, lined up at Audi Team Abt Sportsline, and reckons he has the pace to be with the leaders.

The Spaniard was fifth today 0.492 seconds off Edoardo Mortara’s best lap time. “The truth is that we were on a long run, we had 45 minutes and we tried to do a race distance”, Molina said to Touring Car Times. “We then had the red flag, plus we wanted to check a few things with the car, so we had to come in anyway. But the car feels very good, it’s quick.”

“In the last moments of the session we tried to improve our lap times, but there was a lot of traffic, so it wasn’t possible. But I think we have the pace to be up there with Mattias”. Ekström was second today, only 0.114 seconds off Mortara´s time.

One of the main changes this year is the racing format, with a very short 20-minute qualifying session for each of the races. Whilst others have mentioned how negotiating traffic and being quick is going to be difficult, Molina is unfazed by the situation: “In reality, it’s the same than the Q1 last year, when we had 15 minutes with all cars on track. I don’t see a difference, so I think we have to work as we are used to, it’s not a problem.”

Another significant variation is the scrapping of the option tyres, in favour of a standard single compound. Drivers will have just four sets of tyres for both qualifying sessions and races. Also, whilst the first race could be run with just one set of tyres, a pit stop, changing all four rubbers is compulsory on the second race. This visit to the pits must be done in the second third of the race.

The Spaniard, competing in the number 17 Teufel Audi RS 5 DTM, completed extensive testing during the pre season at Portimao, Estoril and Oschersleben, where he had plenty of time to get to grips with going back to using one type of tyre: “We [the drivers] would have preferred for them to choose the options as the compound to use, but we have the standards. We have very limited sets and the strategies as to whether starting the race on new or used tyres will be interesting, because there is a big difference in the lap times. We have to see what people will do and how things go.”

Miguel Molina was the man on pole position six months ago at the season finale in Hockenheim, finishing eighth in the race.