Mike Rockenfeller dominates FP2 in Spielberg
Audi Team Phoenix set the pace in the second free practice session held this afternoon at the Red Bull Ring, host of the second round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.
The session had a 20-minute delay with due to having to wait for the medical evac helicopter to return from Graz hospital, after it had transported injured drivers following a crash in the supporting Formula 3 race.
Mike Rockenfeller established a new fastest lap around the Styrian track, with a best time of 1:23.540. His team-mate at Audi Sport Team Phoenix Timo Scheider was second, only 0.040 seconds off the pace.
Maximilian Götz was again the fastest man for Mercedes AMG, lapping around the Red Bull Ring 0.078 seconds behind Rockenfeller in his C63 DTM. Yesterday’s pace-setter Tom Blomqvist was, in fourth place, the fastest man for BMW Motorsport, 0.111 seconds behind the best lap.
Audi Sport remained the strongest manufacturer, with the contingent formed by Edoardo Mortara, Jamie Green and Adrien Tambay next on the time sheets. Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella was eighth, 0.267 seconds behind Rockenfeller.
Audi’s Mattias Ekström and BMW’s Maxime Martin rounded out the top 10, which were within less than 0.3 seconds.
Drivers’ championship leader Paul Di Resta was 14th, just 0.341 seconds off the pace and having set the same time as BMW’s Marco Wittmann.
Gary Paffett experienced technical difficulties in his Mercedes AMG C63 DTM, taking most of the session to go out and then stopping on the track due to an electrical problem. As a result, the Briton wasn’t able to set any timed laps.
Once again, the session was very competitive, with 22 drivers separated by 0.857 seconds. Only Esteban Ocon, Paffett’s team-mate at Team ART was more than a second off the pace.
The qualifying session for Race 1 is at 15:25 CET, with the race starting at 17:45 CET.
