DTM testing: Mercedes' Robert Wickens ends Hockenheim test on top
Robert Wickens ended BMW's domination of the final DTM pre-season test at Hockenheim as he topped the times for Mercedes on Thursday

The Canadian was the only driver to break the 1m33s barrier with a best time of 1m32.845s, though that was still 0.8s shy of Marco Wittmann's Tuesday benchmark.
Wickens' effort came in the morning session but was easily good enough to retain top spot despite several drivers improving in the afternoon.
Audi's reigning champion Mike Rockenfeller finished second, just under three-tenths back, while Wickens' HWA Mercedes team-mate Gary Paffett completed the Three-Pointed Star's testing resurgence with the third fastest time.
The Audi RS5s of Abt driver Adrien Tambay and Rosberg's Jamie Green, the latter having gone second quickest in the morning, completed the top five, while the best of the BMW M4s was Augusto Farfus' RBM machine in sixth.
Bruno Spengler was the busiest driver as the second test drew to a close, racking up 174 laps in his Schnitzer M4 en route to seventh quickest time. The 2012 champion was fractionally faster than RMG BMW driver Maxime Martin and new World Rallycross Championship team founder Mattias Ekstrom in the second Abt RS5.
Single-seater converts Vitaly Petrov and Antonio Felix da Costa completed the order for Mercedes and BMW respectively.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 1m32.845s 2. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 1m33.105s +0.260s 3. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 1m33.180s +0.335s 4. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 1m33.287s +0.442s 5. Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 1m33.319s +0.474s 6. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 1m33.505s +0.660s 7. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 1m33.617s +0.772s 8. Maxime Martin RMG BMW 1m33.747s +0.902s 9. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 1m33.753s +0.908s 10. Vitaly Petrov Mucke Mercedes 1m33.894s +1.049s 11. Antonio Felix da Costa MTEK BMW 1m34.096s +1.251s

Previous article
DTM testing: Joey Hand keeps BMW on top at Hockenheim
Next article
DTM 2014: Far too close to call

About this article
Series | DTM |
Drivers | Robert Wickens |
DTM testing: Mercedes' Robert Wickens ends Hockenheim test on top
Trending
The slow-burner threatening to unseat Audi's DTM king
It's taken him a while to emerge as a consistent title challenger, but in the final year of DTM's Class One rule set, Nico Muller has smoothed the rough edges and has double champion stablemate Rene Rast working harder than ever to keep up in the title race
How a DTM failure became an unlikely Nurburgring conqueror
Opel's fortunes in the DTM had taken a turn for the worst by 2003 - hardly the pedigree that suggested it could take on the toughest 24-hour race of them all. But that's exactly what it did
The season that revitalised a sleeping giant
On the 20th anniversary of the resumption of hostilities in the DTM, Autosport revisits a classic season that brought a staple of German motorsport back to life with a bang and set in motion the careers of some notable names
Does 2000 hold the answers to DTM's current crisis?
It's 20 years since the DTM roared back into life at a packed Hockenheim with a back-to-basics approach as the antidote to its high-tech past. Now it's on its knees again, so is it time to recall the lessons learned in 2000?
The last-chance saloon of Germany's forgotten tin-top champions
The Opel Vectra GTS was the last in the line of the marque's DTM challengers, but failed to hit the lofty heights of its predecessors when financial constraints hit
Ranking the 10 best Audi DTM drivers
Audi last week announced it would be exiting the DTM at the end of 2020, bringing the curtain down on 20 years of continuous participation since the series' reboot in 2000. Autosport's expert panel ranks its 10 best drivers from the period
How the DTM landed itself in crisis
Audi's announcement that it will withdraw from the DTM was the latest bodyblow for a series that has lost three manufacturers in as many years. Some major soul-searching will now be required to assess how it can survive
The FE cynic who had to accept change in his series
DTM boss Gerhard Berger was an ardent detractor of Formula E and was reluctant for his series to embrace greener engine technologies. But this cynic's tune has had to change to ensure the DTM's existence in the future of motorsport