The DTM got its Italian race weekend underway on Friday evening with the first of the free practice sessions.
The 19 drivers had to wait until 21:30 before they headed out onto the track at Misano for the first time. Jamie Green shone the brightest during the evening session, with the British driver topping the timing screens during the session that, for the first time, was run under floodlights with a lap time of 1m29.407s.
Green led a quintet of Audi drivers at the top of the timesheet with Robin Frijns (1m29.434s), René Rast (1m29.654s), Loïc Duval (1m29.726s) and Nico Müller (1m29.866s) all showing good pace.
Joel Eriksson was the best-placed BMW driver in sixth. The DTM rookie posted a time of 1m29.983s. Next up was the fastest Mercedes-AMG in the hands of Edoardo Mortara (1m29.997s).
“I was a bit nervous before the start. The DTM cars are faster than the GT cars, and the lights aren’t so bright. That was a good comparison. However, visibility was better than I had expected. Perhaps, it will be a little bit more difficult in the race. I enjoyed practice,” Green said.
Guest driver Alex Zanardi did well. The 51-year-old ended up last with his BMW with a time of 1m32.088s but was able to improve as the session went on. At the end of the 30 minutes’ practice, the Italian was 2.861 seconds down on Green.
Second free practice on Saturday gets underway at 17:15 hrs. The starting grid positions for the first race at Misano will be determined in first qualifying from 20:00 hrs onwards.
The races on Saturday and Sunday start at 22:30 (CET) 21:30 (BST)
