René Rast leads seven Audis in first free practice at the Nürburgring
Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s René Rast claimed the top spot in the first free practice session at the Nürburgring by more than four tenths of a second, with Audi Sport taking the first seven places of the classification.
The session was largely trouble free, although Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver Jamie Green missed the braking point at Turn 9 at the beginning of the session, with BMW Team RMG’s Bruno Spengler also doing so at Turn 1 moments later.
Rast went fastest ten minutes into the session with a time of 1:20.438, followed by local hero Mike Rockenfeller, 0.436 seconds behind.
Rast’s main championship rival and fellow Audi driver Nico Müller was third, with WRT’s Jonathan Aberdein, who led in the initial stages, in fourth place, 0.450 seconds off the pace.
Audi’s dominace continued with Green in fifth, followed by Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval and Team Abt Sportsline’s Robin Frijns, the Dutch being nine-tenths off the pace.
Marco Wittmann was the fastest BMW driver in eight position and the first non-Audi driver, 0.970 seconds behind Rast, with WRT’s Pietro Fittipaldi immediately behind. Paul di Resta was the fastest driver for R-Motorsport in tenth place, 1.2 seconds off the pace.
The second free practice session is scheduled for 16:25 CEST.
