Robert Wickens tops wet second practice
Robert Wickens set the fastest time this morning on the second free practice session held at the Norisring, host of the third round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The Canadian, at the wheel of his Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM lapped in a time of 54.933, under wet weather conditions.
Light rain had been falling since the night over Nuremberg, but it intensified in the morning, making the track wet and causing the drivers to go out on full wet tyres.
The session was largely trouble free, although BMW’s Timo Glock caused a double yellow waved flag when he spun at turn 7.
Robert Wickens, winner last year, was fastest after a busy session. Second on the time sheets was Audi Sport Team Phoenix driver Mike Rockenfeller, 0.154 seconds behind the Canadian. The top three was completed by the BMW M4 DTM of Timo Glock, 0.175 seconds off the pace.
Fourth fastest was Audi’s Timo Scheider, followed by his team mate Jamie Green. Martin Tomczyk was next for BMW, followed by Mercedes’ Dani Juncadella.
Pascal Wehrlein was eighth at the wheel of his Mercedes C63 DTM, 0.432 seconds away from Wickens. BMW’s Augusto Farfus and Mercedes’ Chris Vietoris completed the top ten.
Bruno Spengler, three times winner at the Norisring and one of the favourites here was 16th, whilst the reigning champion Marco Wittmnn had a discreet session in 20th place. Despite the caution because of the weather conditions, the whole 24-car DTM field was classified within 0.929 seconds.
With a 70% possibility of rain over Nuremberg today, storms are forecasted for 14:00h. The 20-minute qualifying session for Race 1 starts at 13:25 CEST (GMT + 2).
