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Hockenheim DTM: Audi takes 1-2-3-4 with Nico Muller at the front

Nico Muller led an Audi 1-2-3-4 as the new-generation DTM kicked off its action with free practice for the Hockenheim opener

The Swiss narrowly defeated the 2017 DTM pole position lap record as he lapped his Abt Sportsline-run RS5 DTM in 1m30.476s, comfortably clear of the opposition.

Rene Rast, the 2017 champion, was second fastest in his Team Rosberg car, 0.361 seconds adrift of Muller, with both setting their times on relatively short runs early in the session.

DTM debutant Jonathan Aberdein put his WRT privateer Audi third in the early going on a similarly short run, with Formula E championship leader Robin Frijns fourth in his Abt machine.

But Frijns was at the beginning of a much longer run than the three cars that were ahead of him at the time, indicating good race pace for the Dutchman.

After a pitstop, he re-emerged to become one of the few drivers to improve late in the session, moving ahead of Aberdein to take third.

The fastest BMW was that of two-time champion Marco Wittmann, although like the Audi pacesetters, his RMG-run M4 was on a shorter run.

Wittmann ended up fifth, with the Audis of Mike Rockenfeller, Loic Duval and Jamie Green next up.

BMW men Timo Glock and Philipp Eng rounded out the top 10.

The four R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantages circulated the best part of two seconds off Muller's pace.

All but Paul di Resta put in a lot of laps, with Daniel Juncadella completing the highest mileage of all.

Juncadella was quickest of the quartet in 14th position among the 18-car field, with only BMW's Joel Eriksson completing a bottom-four lockout for the Astons.

Eriksson understeered straight on at the Sachskurve on his out-lap at the beginning of the session, and had to be winched out of the gravel by a tractor.

After a long time in the pits, he rejoined to improve late in the session.

The meeting is the first for the new DTM cars, with four-cylinder turbocharged machines featuring more power and less downforce than in the last rules package.

FP1 result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Nico Muller Abt Audi 1m30.476s 22
2 Rene Rast Rosberg Audi 0.361s 8
3 Robin Frijns Abt Audi 0.456s 27
4 Jonathan Aberdein WRT Audi 0.592s 19
5 Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 0.692s 19
6 Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 0.763s 28
7 Loic Duval Phoenix Audi 0.908s 26
8 Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 0.916s 11
9 Timo Glock RMR BMW 1.068s 25
10 Philipp Eng RMR BMW 1.185s 24
11 Sheldon van der Linde RBM BMW 1.251s 23
12 Pietro Fittipaldi WRT Audi 1.333s 26
13 Bruno Spengler RMG BMW 1.496s 20
14 Daniel Juncadella R-Motorsport Aston Martin 1.751s 29
15 Joel Eriksson RBM BMW 1.822s 13
16 Jake Dennis R-Motorsport Aston Martin 1.996s 27
17 Paul Di Resta R-Motorsport Aston Martin 1.998s 12
18 Ferdinand Habsburg R-Motorsport Aston Martin 2.788s 24


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