Spengler quickest at Adria
Bruno Spengler set the pace in the final DTM free practice session at Adria on Saturday
The Canadian, who lost the lead of the championship to Mercedes team-mate Paul di Resta at Hockenheim in the last round, was the first of the frontrunners to unleash his pace in the closing stages of the morning session, which was delayed for more than an hour due to fog.
Spengler went quickest with 19 minutes remaining, and he then took another two tenths of a second off his time with his next lap. That run kept him on top until the end, although the Audis of Timo Scheider and Friday pacesetter Alexandre Premat both got within one tenth of a second in the last five minutes.
Oliver Jarvis was on track at the same time as his team-mates and eventually set the fourth fastest time, while Ralf Schumacher had not featured near the front at all until he shot up to fifth with three minutes to go.
Markus Winkelhock dropped from second to sixth in the final 13 minutes, while Gary Paffett was the first of Spengler's title rivals in seventh.
Championship leader di Resta was only 10th, in a session that ended quietly as most drivers were back in the pits with a couple of minutes still remaining.
David Coulthard went from third-fastest on Friday to third from last in today's session. The Scot set roughly the same time that he did on Friday as the chequered flag came out, but this time it was only good enough for 16th.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m10.238s 2. Timo Scheider Audi 1m10.293s + 0.055s 3. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m10.330s + 0.092s 4. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m10.333s + 0.095s 5. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m10.333s + 0.095s 6. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m10.363s + 0.125s 7. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m10.383s + 0.145s 8. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m10.520s + 0.282s 9. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m10.531s + 0.293s 10. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m10.715s + 0.477s 11. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m10.731s + 0.493s 12. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m10.777s + 0.539s 13. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m10.882s + 0.644s 14. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m10.917s + 0.679s 15. Miguel Molina Audi 1m10.925s + 0.687s 16. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m11.144s + 0.906s 17. Katherine Legge Audi 1m11.305s + 1.067s 18. Cong Fu Cheng Mercedes 1m11.374s + 1.136s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments