Mortara tops first Spielberg practice
Edoardo Mortara topped a largely wet opening free practice session for this weekend's third DTM round of the season at the newly-reopened Spielberg circuit in Austria
The Italian's 1m26.780s lap came early in the session on a dry track and put the Rosberg Audi driver at the head of the timesheets by 0.129s from the Persson Mercedes of Christian Vietoris.
Heavy rain hit the track inside the first half-hour of the 90-minute session, and did not let up until much later on, rendering lap times meaningless.
Mortara's team-mate Filipe Albuquerque and Mucke Mercedes man David Coulthard led Martin Tomczyk's Phoenix Audi as the top five was comprised entirely of older-spec machinery.
Zandvoort winner Mike Rockenfeller was the best of the drivers in a current-spec vehicle, the Abt Audi driver sixth, ahead of Maro Engel's Mucke Mercedes, Miguel Molina's older-spec Abt Audi and Renger van der Zande's Persson Mercedes.
Championship leader Bruno Spengler was only 16th quickest in his HWA Mercedes, four places behind his British team-mate Gary Paffett, but two ahead of Jamie Green.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi 1m26.780s 2. Christian Vietoris Persson Mercedes 1m26.909s + 0.129s 3. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi 1m26.959s + 0.179s 4. David Coulthard Mucke Mercedes 1m26.989s + 0.209s 5. Martin Tomczyk Phoenix Audi 1m27.348s + 0.568s 6. Mike Rockenfeller Abt Audi 1m27.379s + 0.599s 7. Maro Engel Mucke Mercedes 1m27.594s + 0.814s 8. Miguel Molina Abt Audi 1m27.618s + 0.838s 9. Renger van der Zande Persson Mercedes 1m27.687s + 0.907s 10. Susie Stoddart Persson Mercedes 1m28.441s + 1.661s 11. Rahel Frey Phoenix Audi 1m28.755s + 1.975s 12. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 1m36.804s + 10.024s 13. Timo Scheider Abt Audi 1m38.002s + 11.222s 14. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 1m39.977s + 13.197s 15. Oliver Jarvis Abt Audi 1m40.332s + 13.552s 16. Bruno Spengler HWA Mercedes 1m40.594s + 13.814s 17. Ralf Schumacher HWA Mercedes 1m40.734s + 13.954s 18. Jamie Green HWA Mercedes 1m41.232s + 14.452s
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