Gary Paffett and Mercedes dominate the morning warm up
Mercedes Benz AMG set the pace this morning in the early 15-minute warm up. Gary Paffett led the Stuttgart manufacturer, who took the first four places of the classification under wet and rainy conditions.
Most drivers were upbeat yesterday about today’s forecast of rain, as they considered that a lot of ground setup work was already done.
The Briton set a best lap of 1:47.581, a lot faster than Friday’s session, which was a lot wetter. Christian Vietoris was second, also at the wheel of the C63 DTM, 0.256 seconds behind Paffett. Paul Di Resta, third in the race yesterday, and Robert Wickens completed the top four.
Audi had been on top of the session until the final minutes from the Stuttgart drivers. Mike Rockenfeller was fifth fastest, albeit over half a second away from Paffett. Marco Wittmann was the fastest man for BMW in sixth place, 0.613 seconds off the pace.
Timo Scheider was seventh for Audi, followed by Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein and with Ingolstadt’s Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara completing the top ten.
Jamie Green, winner of yesterday’s race, was 15th in his RS 5 DTM. The session was largely trouble free, bar a few off track excursions.
Qualifying for race 2 is scheduled for 10:35 CEST, with the race starting at 13:43.
