Paul Di Resta tops free practice at Hockenheim
Mercedes AMG driver Paul Di Resta set the fastest time in the first free practice session of the 2017 DTM season, held at Hockenheim this afternoon.
Fellow Mercedes driver Gary Paffett led most of the session after setting the pace in the early stages. Series returnee Maro Engel had the only incident of the session when he missed the braking point and went straight at Turn 6. The German was able to recover and continue without external help.
BMW had a different strategy than their competitors, sending Tom Blomqvist for an installation lap at the beginning, with the Bavarian cars not going out on track until half of the session had gone by.
With two minutes left on the clock, Di Resta set a best lap of 1:32.732, improving on Paffett by 0.110 seconds. Mike Rockenfeller was third, followed by fellow Audi driver Jamie Green.
Lucas Auer was fifth, followed by Audi’s René Rast, 0.502 seconds off the pace. Team Abt’s Mattias Ekström was seventh with Blomqvist being the best BMW in eighth. Mercedes’s Robert Wickens and BMW’s Timo Glock completed the top ten, with the German 0.817 seconds behind Di Resta.
Maxime Martin was the only driver to not be able to take part in session due to a technical problem, with the Belgian completing an installation lap at the end without setting a time. The BMWs had a hard run, with reigning champion Marco Wittmann only managing 14th place, over a second off the pace.
Edoardo Mortara had a difficult first session for Mercedes, with the Italian changing tyres in the final five minutes. During the pit stop, one of his mechanics knocked the left rear view mirror off, with Mortara being stuck in the pits for the remainder of the session to be 16th fastest.
At the end of the free practice session, the BMW drivers practiced starts at the end of the pitlane, with the entire field being collected by the safety car to run through the NASCAR-style restarts being introduced this season.
Free Practice 2 is scheduled for 09:55 CET tomorrow morning.
