Wittmann fastest in Brands practice

DTM rookie Marco Wittmann headed the timesheets in practice at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning.

The MTEK BMW driver was a constant factor inside the top five during the second half of the 90-minute session and was not headed after a 41.617-second lap put him into the top spot with 17 minutes remaining.

The German was able to improve his benchmark time to 41.378s during the final minutes and head Mike Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Audi by 0.004s.

Two-time DTM title winner Timo Scheider made it two Audis in the top three in his Abt Sportsline RS5 while reigning champion Bruno Spengler was fourth in his Schnitzer BMW.

Miguel Molina’s Phoenix Audi and Hockenheim race winner Augusto Farfus’s RBM BMW completed the top six.

Farfus nearly caused a nasty moment at Graham Hill bend in the final minutes as he slowed exiting the corner to let the RMG M3 of Andy Priaulx past, but failed to spot Adrien Tambay was also following. The Frenchman had to take to the grass to avoid hitting Farfus.

Joey Hand and Martin Tomczyk were next up with Gary Paffett, last year’s Brands Hatch race winner, the fastest of the Mercedes drivers in ninth for HWA.

Paffett was one of a number of drivers to drop two wheels into the gravel on the exit of Paddock.

The others included Filipe Albuquerque and Pascal Wehrlein, while Dirk Werner bounced across the grass at Surtees after running wide at the entry to the left-right sweep.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time     Gap
  1.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW        41.378s
  2.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi    41.472s  + 0.094s
  3.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi        41.498s  + 0.120s
  4.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW   41.562s  + 0.184s
  5.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi    41.587s  + 0.209s
  6.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW         41.630s  + 0.252s
  7.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW         41.630s  + 0.252s
  8.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW         41.654s  + 0.276s
  9.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes    41.659s  + 0.281s
 10.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi        41.714s  + 0.336s
 11.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW   41.722s  + 0.344s
 12.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi        41.738s  + 0.360s
 13.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW         41.742s  + 0.364s
 14.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes    41.770s  + 0.392s
 15.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes  41.775s  + 0.397s
 16.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes    41.787s  + 0.409s
 17.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi        41.793s  + 0.415s
 18.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes    41.835s  + 0.457s
 19.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW        41.848s  + 0.470s
 20.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes  41.888s  + 0.510s
 21.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi    41.901s  + 0.523s
 22.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi    41.946s  + 0.568s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/miscellaneous/dtm/wittmann-fastest-in-brands-practice

Aldo Gordini Horace Gould Jean Marc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried