Tom Blomqvist sets the pace on day two at Hockenheim
BMW Motorsport’s Tom Blomqvist was the fastest driver on the second day of the official ITR pre-season tests for the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, held in Hockenheim this week.
The Team RBM driver clocked the fastest lap of 1:33.214 in the afternoon session, with clear skies and a dry track welcoming the DTM drivers after yesterday’s rain.
Mattias Ekström was second fastest, just 0.086 seconds off the pace, followed by fellow Audi Sport driver Mike Rockenfeller, who had dominated the morning session.
The Swede from Team Abt Sportsline said: “We had a great day, we did a lot of laps and had some new parts tested which proved to be good, so we found a couple of hundreds today.”
BMW Team RMG driver Marco Wittmann was fourth fastest thanks to his morning best lap time, followed by António Félix Da Costa in the sister M4 DTM.
Audi’s Jamie Green was next on the time sheets, followed by Maximilian Götz, who was again the fastest driver for Mercedes AMG.
Team Abt Sportsline’s Edoardo Mortara was eighth, with Mercedes’ Lucas Auer and rookie Esteban Ocon next on the classification. The young Frenchman was just 0.664 behind Blomqvist’s time.
2012 champion Bruno Spengler was 11th fastest for BMW, with Daniel Juncadella 12th and last, hitting trouble during the afternoon session in his C63 DTM.
The last minutes of the session were used by the teams to practice pit stops and tyre changes, with no major incidents reported during the day.
Testing resumes tomorrow for day three, with Robert Wickens, Paul Di Resta, Gary Paffett and Christian Vietoris on driving duties for Mercedes.
