DTM Nurburgring: Miguel Molina edges Paul di Resta in practice
Audi's Miguel Molina edged out Mercedes driver Paul di Resta in Friday practice for the penultimate DTM round at the Nurburgring
Molina set his time of 1m22.861s with four minutes remaining, during a flurry of qualifying runs on new tyres.
It was just 0.043 seconds ahead of 2010 champion di Resta, who also set his time at the end of the session, while Audi filled six of the top 10 places.
Jamie Green sat atop the timesheets for the bulk of the 45 minutes, and was the only man below the 1m23s bracket, with a lap of 1m22.970s.
While he didn't improve in the last 10 minutes, he still ended the day third, ahead of Audi stablemate Mike Rockenfeller.
Robert Wickens was sixth for Mercedes, ahead of championship leader Pascal Wehrlein.
Adrien Tambay, Edoardo Mortara, Christian Vietoris and Mattias Ekstrom completed the top 10.
After winning both races at Oschersleben, it was a sobering afternoon for BMW.
The series' newest winner, rookie Tom Blomqvist was its leading representative in 15th, while Saturday Oschersleben victor Timo Glock finished at the foot of the times.
EKSTROM LEADS BUSIER MORNING
In a late change to the schedule, following fog delays at Oschersleben, the regular Saturday-morning practice session was moved to Friday for this weekend.
Ekstrom, who trails Wehrlein by 14 points in the championship, was the only Audi driver inside the top 10 but led the way with a time of 1m23.697s.
His effort was just 0.038s ahead of Augusto Farfus, who was joined in the top four by BMW stablemates Marco Wittmann and Blomqvist.
Wehrlein was 14th-fastest, 0.596s off Ekstrom's benchmark.
The format change means the first time drivers will turn a wheel on Saturday will be in the 20-minute qualifying session.
"Everybody will try to estimate as good as they can for the conditions that are coming," Ekstrom said.
"We all have teams which know what they're doing and getting a very quick read on the track after your first laps will be the key to having a good qualifying.
"The conditions now, it's afternoon, it's getting warm, that's the feeling we'll go to bed with.
"But tomorrow morning it will be probably 10 degrees or something with very crisp air, it will be different with different laptimes."
FREE PRACTICE 1
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mattias Ekstrom | Abt | Audi | 1m23.679s | 18 |
2 | Augusto Farfus | RBM | BMW | 0.038s | 22 |
3 | Marco Wittmann | RMG | BMW | 0.079s | 21 |
4 | Tom Blomqvist | RBM | BMW | 0.166s | 21 |
5 | Paul Di Resta | HWA | Mercedes | 0.204s | 24 |
6 | Gary Paffett | ART | Mercedes | 0.213s | 23 |
7 | Lucas Auer | ART | Mercedes | 0.313s | 22 |
8 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Schnitzer | BMW | 0.320s | 22 |
9 | Maximilian Gotz | Mucke | Mercedes | 0.326s | 29 |
10 | Maxime Martin | RMG | BMW | 0.353s | 21 |
11 | Mike Rockenfeller | Phoenix | Audi | 0.422s | 25 |
12 | Adrien Tambay | Abt | Audi | 0.482s | 25 |
13 | Miguel Molina | Abt | Audi | 0.534s | 25 |
14 | Pascal Wehrlein | HWA | Mercedes | 0.596s | 25 |
15 | Bruno Spengler | MTEK | BMW | 0.609s | 20 |
16 | Jamie Green | Rosberg | Audi | 0.612s | 27 |
17 | Daniel Juncadella | Mucke | Mercedes | 0.624s | 26 |
18 | Edoardo Mortara | Abt | Audi | 0.675s | 11 |
19 | Timo Scheider | Phoenix | Audi | 0.705s | 22 |
20 | Christian Vietoris | HWA | Mercedes | 0.733s | 22 |
21 | Robert Wickens | HWA | Mercedes | 0.764s | 22 |
22 | Timo Glock | MTEK | BMW | 0.786s | 21 |
23 | Martin Tomczyk | Schnitzer | BMW | 0.867s | 20 |
24 | Nico Muller | Rosberg | Audi | 0.990s | 27 |
FREE PRACTICE 2
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Miguel Molina | Abt | Audi | 1m22.861s | 19 |
2 | Paul Di Resta | HWA | Mercedes | 0.043s | 17 |
3 | Jamie Green | Rosberg | Audi | 0.109s | 21 |
4 | Mike Rockenfeller | Phoenix | Audi | 0.132s | 22 |
5 | Robert Wickens | HWA | Mercedes | 0.151s | 20 |
6 | Pascal Wehrlein | HWA | Mercedes | 0.152s | 23 |
7 | Adrien Tambay | Abt | Audi | 0.183s | 22 |
8 | Edoardo Mortara | Abt | Audi | 0.205s | 23 |
9 | Christian Vietoris | HWA | Mercedes | 0.211s | 19 |
10 | Mattias Ekstrom | Abt | Audi | 0.235s | 22 |
11 | Gary Paffett | ART | Mercedes | 0.313s | 24 |
12 | Lucas Auer | ART | Mercedes | 0.327s | 23 |
13 | Nico Muller | Rosberg | Audi | 0.403s | 23 |
14 | Timo Scheider | Phoenix | Audi | 0.421s | 20 |
15 | Tom Blomqvist | RBM | BMW | 0.423s | 17 |
16 | Maxime Martin | RMG | BMW | 0.431s | 19 |
17 | Augusto Farfus | RBM | BMW | 0.449s | 18 |
18 | Marco Wittmann | RMG | BMW | 0.506s | 20 |
19 | Daniel Juncadella | Mucke | Mercedes | 0.547s | 23 |
20 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Schnitzer | BMW | 0.671s | 22 |
21 | Bruno Spengler | MTEK | BMW | 0.768s | 21 |
22 | Martin Tomczyk | Schnitzer | BMW | 0.882s | 11 |
23 | Maximilian Gotz | Mucke | Mercedes | 0.923s | 23 |
24 | Timo Glock | MTEK | BMW | 0.930s | 20 |
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