Tomczyk tops final practice session
Martin Tomczyk topped the final free practice session of the DTM season ahead of Saturday's qualifying session, while title contenders Timo Scheider and Paul di Resta were separated by just 0.007 seconds
The session was slow to get going as cool temperatures prevented the track from properly drying out and the four HWA Mercedes drivers waited until the final 20 minutes of the one hour session to take to the track.
Scheider was quickest at one point, but the times began to tumble in the final few minutes and he was watching on from the garage as di Resta put in a quick lap. The Scot was faster in the first sector but eventually came up short by seven thousandths of a second.
The Mercedes driver had one more hot lap as the session was drawing to a close, but he locked up under braking for the hairpin and went straight on.
The title contenders didn't stay at the top though, as Scheider's Abt Audi teammates Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom pushed them back to third and fourth.
Tom Kristensen made sure that Audi repeated their Friday feat of getting all four 2008 cars into the top five, while Mike Rockenfeller was the top driver in a one-year-old car in sixth place.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1:33.140 2. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1:33.232 +0.092 3. Timo Scheider Audi 1:33.383 +0.243 4. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1:33.390 +0.250 5. Tom Kristensen Audi 1:33.568 +0.428 6. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1:33.627 +0.487 7. Jamie Green Mercedes 1:33.676 +0.536 8. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1:33.900 +0.760 9. Maro Engel Mercedes 1:33.966 +0.826 10. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1:34.056 +0.916 11. Bernd Schneider Mercedes 1:34.096 +0.956 12. Alexandre Premat Audi 1:34.171 +1.031 13. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1:34.480 +1.340 14. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1:34.562 +1.422 15. Christijan Albers Audi 1:34.732 +1.592 16. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1:34.762 +1.622 17. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1:34.795 +1.655 18. Katherine Legge Audi 1:35.169 +2.029 19. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1:35.520 +2.380
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
F1 2019 game includes official driver transfers for first time
F1 testing: Toro Rosso's Albon on top, Mercedes starts to show pace
Michael Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories
DTM champion Tomcyzk returns to Abt as motorsport director
Friday favourite: The "4WD limo" that stunned a DTM star
The remarkable career of a 'classy' champion who rejected politics
Ferrari "made too many mistakes" for podium fight at F1 Chinese GP
What is a wildcard in MotoGP and why is it used?
How abruptly slowing down helped WRT to WEC Imola victory
Arrow McLaren confirms Pourchaire for Barber Motorsports Park
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The plug in and play stand-ins who got their timing just right
The longest-serving Red Bull driver revealing F1’s true brutality
How the DTM has come back stronger from its Norisring nadir
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments