Norisring DTM: Mercedes on top with Wickens and Juncadella
Robert Wickens and Daniel Juncadella were the pacesetters across the two DTM practice sessions at the Norisring, on a morning where Mercedes looked to be the form team
Given the lack of fast corners on the unique street circuit, Mercedes was confident coming into the weekend that it would at least be closer to Audi and BMW.
On practice form it would appear that Mercedes will actually be the team to beat, with Daniel Juncadella topping the first session, before Robert Wickens set the best time of the day so far to top the second session with a 48.210s.
Wickens was consistently quick across both of the one-hour sessions. In the first, he was seemingly on to be fastest, only to be relegated to second 90 seconds from the end of the session by Mucke driver Juncadella.
But across the second hour the Canadian was peerless, going fastest 11 minutes from the end, and ending up with a 0.095s gap back to Audi's Mike Rockenfeller in second, in a session where the whole field was split by just over six tenths.
Christian Vietoris was third in the second session, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, making it three C-Coupes in the top four.
While Rockenfeller was the best of the Audis based on his practice two time, the most consistent across the two sessions was Briton Jamie Green, who was sixth in FP1, and fifth in FP2. Mattias Ekstrom also showed some pace for Audi, going third behind Wickens in opening practice.
BMW, however, had a trying morning. Championship leader Marco Wittmann was the best-placed M4 in both sessions, but could manage just 15th in FP1, and seventh in FP2.
That was BMW's only single-digit position across the two sessions, with M4s filling the last seven positions in practice one, and six of the bottom 10 positions later on.
Practice one: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes 48.567s 2. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 48.573s +0.006s 3. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 48.664s +0.097s 4. Timo Scheider Phoenix Audi 48.686s +0.119s 5. Nico Muller Rosberg Audi 48.704s +0.137s 6. Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 48.708s +0.141s 7. Pascal Wehrlein HWA Mercedes 48.719s +0.152s 8. Paul di Resta HWA Mercedes 48.749s +0.182s 9. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 48.765s +0.198s 10. Edoardo Mortara Abt Audi 48.791s +0.224s 11. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 48.844s +0.277s 12. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 48.859s +0.292s 13. Miguel Molina Abt Audi 48.870s +0.303s 14. Vitaly Petrov Mucke Mercedes 48.926s +0.359s 15. Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 48.933s +0.366s 16. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 48.963s +0.396s 17. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 48.973s +0.406s 18. Maxime Martin RMG BMW 49.008s +0.441s 19. Timo Glock MTEK BMW 49.026s +0.459s 20. Antonio Felix da Costa MTEK BMW 49.051s +0.484s 21. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 49.086s +0.519s 22. Joey Hand RBM BMW 49.202s +0.635s 23. Martin Tomczyk Schnitzer BMW 49.231s +0.664s Practice two: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 48.210s 2. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 48.305s +0.095s 3. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 48.338s +0.128s 4. Pascal Wehrlein HWA Mercedes 48.393s +0.183s 5. Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 48.406s +0.196s 6. Paul di Resta HWA Mercedes 48.414s +0.204s 7. Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 48.420s +0.210s 8. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 48.427s +0.217s 9. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 48.435s +0.225s 10. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 48.435s +0.225s 11. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes 48.436s +0.226s 12. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 48.452s +0.242s 13. Nico Muller Rosberg Audi 48.475s +0.265s 14. Maxime Martin RMG BMW 48.578s +0.368s 15. Miguel Molina Abt Audi 48.625s +0.415s 16. Edoardo Mortara Abt Audi 48.637s +0.427s 17. Martin Tomczyk Schnitzer BMW 48.655s +0.445s 18. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 48.675s +0.465s 19. Joey Hand RBM BMW 48.678s +0.468s 20. Timo Glock MTEK BMW 48.699s +0.489s 21. Timo Scheider Phoenix Audi 48.772s +0.562s 22. Antonio Felix da Costa MTEK BMW 48.786s +0.576s 23. Vitaly Petrov Mucke Mercedes 48.836s +0.626s
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