Norisring DTM: Spengler puts BMW on top in practice
Bruno Spengler topped DTM practice at the Norisring on Saturday morning; a late flyer putting the BMW driver on top of the timesheets
Spengler had not been a factor for the main part of the session, with the Audis of Mattias Ekstrom and Edoardo Mortara leading the way for most of it.
But the Canadian's late 48.427-second lap was enough to give the reigning champion the top spot.
Adrien Tambay was just 0.004s slower than Spengler in his Abt Audi, knocking Mortara back to third ahead of his team-mate Filipe Albuquerque and Timo Scheider's Abt machine.
Championship leader Mike Rockenfeller was seventh in his Phoenix Audi while Robert Wickens was the best Mercedes driver in 13th.
The session was largely incident-free, save for a few moments involving Dirk Werner and Roberto Merhi.
Werner overshot the final corner early on, his Schnitzer BMW coming to a halt without hitting anything. Later the car stopped on the inside of the track before the same turn and had to be towed back to the pits.
Merhi had a major lock-up at The Esses with 20 minutes remaining and missed the first part of the corner. Like Werner, he did not hit anything.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 48.427s 2. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 48.431s +0.004s 3. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi 48.552s +0.125s 4. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi 48.554s +0.127s 5. Timo Scheider Abt Audi 48.596s +0.169s 6. Miguel Molina Phoenix Audi 48.611s +0.184s 7. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 48.661s +0.234s 8. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 48.703s +0.276s 9. Andy Priaulx RMG BMW 48.788s +0.361s 10. Martin Tomczyk RMG BMW 48.814s +0.387s 11. Joey Hand RBM BMW 48.817s +0.390s 12. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 48.824s +0.397s 13. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 48.848s +0.421s 14. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 48.858s +0.431s 15. Marco Wittmann MTEK BMW 48.860s +0.433s 16. Jamie Green Abt Audi 48.868s +0.441s 17. Timo Glock MTEK BMW 48.892s +0.465s 18. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 48.928s +0.501s 19. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Mercedes 48.934s +0.507s 20. Dirk Werner Schnitzer BMW 49.174s +0.747s 21. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes 49.174s +0.747s 22. Roberto Merhi HWA Mercedes 49.393s +0.966s
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