Robert Wickens leads all Mercedes top three in Zandvoort Free Practice 1

HWA Mercedes driver was fastest of all in the first free practice session for the DTM at Zandvoort, jumping to the top of the time sheets before the halfway point in the session in his Mercedes-Benz C63, eventually leading the way ahead of HWA team-mate Daniel Juncadella and the Mücke Mercedes of Christian Vietoris.

ART Mercedes driver Gary Paffett had set the first marker, which was soon surpassed by the Audi RS 5s of first Mike Rockenfeller and then Mattias Ekström, before Paffett and Ekström continued to swap the top spot throughout the remainder of the first ten minutes of the session.

Soon after the ten-minute mark Wickens jumped to the fore, setting a time of 1:31.693 which would remain unbeaten by the end of the 30-minute session.

The Canadian’s closest challenger was Spain’s Daniel Juncadella, who set the second fastest time soon after Wickens set his best lap, just four-hundredths of a second behind.

Christian Vietoris made a late improvement to go third fastest in his Mücke Mercedes, with Mattias Ekström jumping up to fourth after the chequered flag and be the best placed of the Audis behind an all Mercedes-AMG top three.

Gary Paffett ended the session fifth fastest ahead of the best-placed of the BMWs, with Bruno Spengler setting the sixth fastest time in BMW Team MTEK M4 DTM.

Austrian driver Lucas Auer was seventh fastest in his Mücke Mercedes-AMG C63, with the Audi of Mike Rockenfeller and the two BMWs of Nico Müller and Martin Tomczyk completing the top ten.

None of the top five drivers in the championship standings featured in the top ten in the session, with Jamie Green the best placed of these in 17th position in the Audi Sport Team Abt Audi RS 5, while championship leader Marco Wittmann finished the session 24th and last in his Team RMG BMW M4, 1.4 seconds off the pace.

The next session is Free Practice 2 at 13:45 CET on Saturday.