BMW dominates first free practice at Oschersleben
BMW Motorsport had the upper hand this afternoon at the first free practice session held in Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, host of the seventh round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. Augusto Farfus led the contingent of six M4 DTMs in the top ten, with a clear advantage over Mercedes and Audi.
The session started with all cars on track, and Mercedes AMG’s Pascal Wehrlein being the first pace setter, with a best time of 1:21.236. BMW’s Maxime Martin would soon take the top position, improving by just 0.016 seconds. They were followed inthe classification by Paul Di Resta, Marco Wittmann and Gary Paffett
Miguel Molina was fast with his Audi RS 5 DTM, being the top man for the Ingolstadt manufacturer. The Spaniard was seventh after the first run, followed by team-mates Jamie Green, Mike Rockenfeller and Nico Müller.
Most drivers went back to the pits. As they started their second stint, the session had to be red-flagged due to Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris spinning off track and burying his C63 DTM in the gravel. Fortunately, the marshals were able to recover the car and the Original Teile driver returned to the pits on his own power.
With just six minutes on the clock, BMW’s António Félix Da Costa went fastest overall, with a laptime of 1:21.015, stringing several laps where he was the fastest man on track, despite his competitors’ best efforts.
The last five minutes saw plenty of action, with all 24 cars on track. BMW pulled strongly, with Augusto Farfus claiming the top spot with a time of 1:21.007, improving his team-mate by just 0.008 seconds. Tom Blomqvist shoot to third position, whilst recovered Christian Vietoris went up to seventh place. Timo Glock also bettered his time be eighth, just ahead of Marco Wittmann.
Mercedes AMG’s Pascal Wehrlein in fifth, followed by team-mates Paul Di Resta and Christian Vietoris, together with Gary Paffett in tenth place, were the only non BMW cars on the top ten.
Edoardo Mortara was 11th and fastest for Audi Sport, although 0.436 seconds off the pace. Timo Scheider, back at the wheel of his Team Phoenix RS 5 DTM after his exclusion from the Moscow event, was 19th.
On track action for the DTM resumes tomorrow morning, with second free practice scheduled for 8:20 CEST (GMT + 2).
