Photo: DTM media

Marco Wittmann quickest in first DTM 2014 practice session

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BMW driver Marco Wittmann went quickest in the first practice session of the 2014 DTM season opener at Hockenheim ahead of the Abt Audi pairing of Miguel Molina and Adrien Tambay.

Wittmann, now in his second DTM year, looked competitive in his RMG BMW prepared M4 DTM for the entirety of the first 90-minute practice session of the 2014 DTM season. In the closing 10-minutes of the session, he put in a lap-time of 1m32.654 to pip Molina’s Audi RS 5 DTM by 00.052 seconds.

Audi DTM rookie Nico Müller impressed on his debut to finish fourth ahead of 2013 DTM championship runner up Augusto Farfus, who was the second-best placed BMW in fifth. 

Edoardo Mortara rounded out the top-six in his Abt run Audi RS 5 DTM, but the Italian was quickest for the majority of the session after having put in a quick lap in the first 10 minutes of the opening practice session.

Another DTM rookie, Antonio Felix da Costa, was seventh on his DTM debut at Hockenheim after finishing seventh and looking strong for the whole 90-minutes. Jamie Green and 2013 DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller were eighth and nine in their Audi RS 5 DTMs, and BMW’s Joey Hand rounded out the top-10.

The Mercedes DTM squad appeared to have a practice session to forget. As the track conditions improved over the 90 minutes, Pascal Wehrlein jumped to fourth, but eventually had to settle for 13th as the best placed Mercedes.

The positions from 18th to 23rd were locked out by Mercedes, with DTM returnee Paul di Resta leading the group. DTM rookie Vitaly Petrov was 21st on his debut for the manufacturer, and Dani Juncadella propped up the time-sheets in 23rd.