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Spielberg DTM: Joey Hand fastest for BMW in practice

Joey Hand set the pace for BMW in free practice for this weekend's DTM round at Spielberg on Saturday morning

The American, who took the best result of his DTM career with fifth place last time out at Brands Hatch, went to the top of the timesheets for RBM with just seconds of the 90-minute session remaining, knocking Filipe Albuquerque off the top spot.

Hand's lap of 1m25.467 was 0.225 seconds faster than championship leader Mike Rockenfeller's best, as the Phoenix Audi driver knocked Albuquerque's Team Rosberg RS5 down to third by the chequered flag.

The season's star rookie, Marco Wittmann, was fourth in his MTEK BMW with Edoardo Mortara completing a good session for Team Rosberg in fifth, despite being launched a long way into the air after clobbering a 'sausage' kerb at Turn 1 late on.

Abt Audi team-mates Adrien Tambay and Jamie Green were next up with the BMWs of Timo Glock (MTEK), champion Bruno Spengler (Schnitzer) and Martin Tomczyk (RMG) completing the top 10.

The best of the Mercedes drivers was Daniel Juncadella in 15th, this despite the RSC Mucke driver taking a trip through the gravel after locking his rear to prevent a spin exiting Turn 5.

His team-mate Pascal Wehrlein finished the session watching from the side of the track after his C-Coupe ground to a halt at the same point on the track with a few minutes remaining.

Andy Priaulx was another to go through the gravel; the RMG BMW man repeating Juncadella's earlier excursion.

There was nearly a nasty accident early on when Christian Vietoris pulled out from behind Green to pass the Briton approaching Turn 2.

Vietoris failed to realise that his HWA Mercedes team-mate Roberto Merhi had slowed on the inside to let both by and had to quickly duck back in behind the Audi to avoid a collision.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time       Gap
 1.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW         1m25.407s
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi    1m25.632s  + 0.225s
 3.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi    1m25.664s  + 0.257s
 4.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW        1m25.688s  + 0.281s
 5.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi    1m25.724s  + 0.317s
 6.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi        1m25.735s  + 0.328s
 7.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi        1m25.738s  + 0.331s
 8.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW        1m25.798s  + 0.391s
 9.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW   1m25.815s  + 0.408s
10.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW         1m25.856s  + 0.449s
11.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi    1m25.913s  + 0.506s
12.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi        1m25.976s  + 0.569s
13.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi        1m26.021s  + 0.614s
14.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW         1m26.047s  + 0.640s
15.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes  1m26.230s  + 0.823s
16.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW         1m26.237s  + 0.830s
17.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes  1m26.303s  + 0.896s
18.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes    1m26.429s  + 1.022s
19.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes    1m26.497s  + 1.090s
20.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW   1m26.527s  + 1.120s
21.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes    1m26.869s  + 1.462s
22.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes    1m27.047s  + 1.640s

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