Miguel Molina was the surprise pacesetter in first free practice as the DTM round at Brands Hatch got underway on Friday, where the top four positions on the timesheets were filled by older-spec cars.
The young Spaniard lapped the Kent venue's short Indy circuit in 42.776 seconds. He was only 0.036s ahead of fellow 2008-spec Audi driver Edoardo Mortara. Mucke Mercedes teammates Maro Engel and David Coulthard were third and fourth respectively, both within a tenth of a second of Molina's benchmark time.
Mike Rockenfeller was the best of the latest-spec cars in fifth, closely followed by fellow Abt Audi driver Timo Scheider. Ralf Schumacher was the best of the crack HWA Mercedes squad's quartet of drivers in seventh.
Schumacher shaded older-spec Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris, who arrived in the UK fresh from pole position and victory in GP2 at Spa-Francorchamps last Saturday, by just eight thousandths of a second.
Mattias Ekstrom, winner last time out at the Nurburgring, was ninth for Audi ahead of Renger van der Zande. Gary Paffett began his home race weekend in 11th place, one place ahead of Mercedes teammate and championship leader Bruno Spengler.
Filipe Albuquerque was next up in his Audi, ahead of another local star Jamie Green. Title contender Martin Tomczyk could not reproduce the pace of his fellow older-spec Audi drivers, ending up a lowly 15th.
The final two British drivers Oliver Jarvis and Susie Stoddart were 16th and 17th, with Rahel Frey propping up the timesheets, albeit less than 0.8s away from Molina.
The cars will return to the track for second free practice on Saturday morning from 9.00 until 10.30. The qualifying session will commence at 14:10.
Free practice 1 times:
Pos. | Driver / Entrant / Car | Laps | Time | Gap |
1. | Miguel Molina Audi Sport Team Abt Junior Red Bull Audi A4 DTM |
61 | 42.776 | |
2. | Edoardo Mortara Audi Sport Team Rosberg Playboy Audi A4 DTM |
56 | 42.812 | 00.036 |
3. | Maro Engel GQ AMG Mercedes GQ AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
62 | 42.862 | 00.086 |
4. | David Coulthard Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
60 | 42.870 | 00.094 |
5. | Mike Rockenfeller Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline E-POSTBRIEF Audi A4 DTM |
54 | 42.877 | 00.101 |
6. | Timo Scheider Audi Sport Team Abt AUTO TEST Audi A4 DTM |
52 | 42.899 | 00.123 |
7. | Ralf Schumacher Salzgitter AMG Mercedes Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
73 | 42.947 | 00.171 |
8. | Christian Vietoris Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
53 | 42.955 | 00.179 |
9. | Mattias Ekström Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline Red Bull Audi A4 DTM |
53 | 42.983 | 00.207 |
10. | Renger van der Zande stern AMG Mercedes stern AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
54 | 43.049 | 00.273 |
11. | Gary Paffett Thomas Sabo AMG Mercedes Thomas Sabo AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
75 | 43.054 | 00.278 |
12. | Bruno Spengler Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Klasse |
50 | 43.080 | 00.304 |
13. | Filipe Albuquerque Audi Sport Team Rosberg TV Movie Audi A4 DTM |
67 | 43.105 | 00.329 |
14. | Jamie Green AMG Mercedes AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
48 | 43.148 | 00.372 |
15. | Martin Tomczyk Audi Sport Team Phoenix Schaeffler Audi A4 DTM |
61 | 43.154 | 00.378 |
16. | Oliver Jarvis Audi Sport Team Abt Audi Sport performance cars A4 DTM |
52 | 43.192 | 00.416 |
17. | Susie Stoddart TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Klasse |
61 | 43.325 | 00.549 |
18. | Rahel Frey Audi Sport Team Phoenix Glamour Audi A4 DTM |
60 | 43.566 | 00.790 |