Nico Müller on top in the second practice session
Nico Müller was the fastest man in the second free practice session celebrated this morning in Hockenheim, host of the premier for the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Season.
The Swiss driver from Team Abt set a best time of 1:33.861 at the wheel of his Audi RS 5 DTM under very warm conditions, with air temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius.
The Ingolstadt manufacturer made their intentions clear locking the top six positions, with Mike Rockenfeller on second place, followed by Mattias Ekström, Timo Scheider, Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara. The Italian driver was just 0.284 seconds off the pace.
Robert Wickens was the fastest man for Mercedes AMG in seventh position at the wheel of the new C63 DTM, 0.296 seconds behind Müller. Team-mate Gary Paffett followed in eighth place.
Bruno Spengler was the only BMW driver to break into the top ten, finishing the session in ninth position 0.377 seconds off the pace.
Lucas Auer completed the top ten in his Mercedes AMG C63 DTM, 0.468 seconds behind Müller. The Austrian run well all the session, but went off the track at the last corner with two minutes to go. His incident was the only disruption to a trouble-free session.
Mercedes AMG’s rookie Esteban Ocon had a good performance, finishing in 11th place, 0.489 seconds off the pace. On the other side of the coin, Paul Di Resta struggled with general pace, finishing last and 1.475 seconds behind Nico Müller.
The conditions are expected to remain dry and hot for the qualifying session for Race 1, scheduled for 13:50 CEST.
