DTM

First blood to Mercedes as new DTM season kicks off

1 Mins read
Credit: ACPhotocorse
Credit: ACPhotocorse

Mercedes AMG took first blood of the 2017 DTM season as Paul Di Resta topped the first practice session at Hockenheim.

It was another Brit in a Mercedes, Gary Paffett, who led the way for the majority of the session but would ultimately be pipped to the top spot by Di Resta by 0.110 seconds, with Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller in third place with Audi stable-mate Jamie Green in fourth.

“We still have a lot of work to do. This didn’t really say much,” said Rockenfeller. “Now, we will sit down and see what we can still improve. I am happy that I am among the drivers up front. The basis is good,”

Lucas Auer finished the session in fifth place ahead of Audi’s René Rast and Mattias Ekström. BMW spent half of the session in the pits after sending Tom Blomqvist out for an installation lap, the Brit would finish as the best placed BMW driver in eighth place, just ahead of Mercedes’ Robert Wickens and BMW team-mate Timo Glock rounding out the top ten.

It was a fairly straight forward session with only Maro Engel suffering from an off-track excursion after missing his breaking point at turn 6, The Mercedes driver was able to recover unaided.

Maxime Martin was forced to sit out the majority of the session due to a technical issue, he finally made it out on track at the end of the session to complete an installation lap without setting a lap time.

Reigning champion Marco Wittmann could only manage fourteenth place, over a second off pace while Edoardo Mortara struggled on his first session for Mercedes; While changing tyre in the final five minutes of the session one of his mechanics knocked the left mirror from the car, consigning him to the pits for the remainder.

At the end of the session the drivers rehearsed their rolling starts as the championship brings in a new format for starting from behind the safety car the 2017 season.

Avatar photo
3032 posts

About author
Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Checkered Flag who grew up visiting race circuits around the UK also a freelance motorsport PR officer. Outside of motorsport a lover of music, photography, NBA and NFL.
Articles
Related posts
DTMFormula E

Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY Champion and Reigning DTM Champion to test for Jaguar

3 Mins read
Jaguar have announced that Simon Evans and reigning DTM Champion Sheldon van der Linde will complete Monday’s Rookie Test for the team.
DTMFormula EFormula Regional European Championship

ABT CUPRA to run Reigning ETCR Champion and ADAC Youngster in Rookie Test

2 Mins read
Reigning ETCR Champion Adrien Tambay and FREC driver Tim Tramnitz will drive for ABT CUPRA next Monday in the Formula E Rookie Test
DTMFormula E

Kelvin van der Linde to replace Robin Frijns for foreseeable future

3 Mins read
ABT DTM driver Kelvin van der Linde has been confirmed as Robin Frijns’ replacement at next weekend’s Diriyah E-Prix, with the Dutchman ruled out for potentially the bulk of the season.