Photo: DTM Media

Maxime Martin leads opening practice session in Spielberg

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BMW Team RMG driver Maxime Martin led the first free practice session at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. The BMW driver clocked an unreachable 1:25.985, making him the first to lap below the 1:26 limit. Audi’s Miguel Molina, who had led the session ever since the early stages, settled for second, while Robert Wickens put his Mercedes in third to make it three different manufacturers in the top three.

Despite Martin taking the top spot, the session was encouraging for Audi, with title challenger Mattias Ekström and Adrien Tambay in fourth and fifth respectively. BMW DTM rookie Antònio Félix Da Costa came sixth ahead of reigning DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller and his Audi stablemate Timo Scheider. BMW drivers Marco Wittmann and Augusto Farfus rounded out the top ten.

As often is the case in DTM, the top ten were separated by as little as half a second.

BMW star Bruno Spengler had a difficult session and only managed sixteenth, just ahead of Mercedes’ DTM returnee Paul Di Resta. Fellow former Formula 1 driver Vitaly Petrov finished the session in 22nd, just ahead of Pascal Wehrlein’s BMW.

The session was smooth, with only a few minor mistakes by some drivers.

Mercedes driver Robert Wickens said he is surprised with the pace shown by the C-Class so far, but there is still a lot of work ahead of qualifying:”To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be as happy as I am after the first session”, admitted the Canadian. “However, this is only the first session of the weekend, so there is a lot of work ahead of us before qualifying”, concluded the Mercedes driver.

Maxime Martin, winner last time out in Moscow, said he was not looking for performance, but is still happy to have finished on top of the time sheets.

“I don’t know why we were so quick, because we are still working on the set-up and the balance of the car. However, it’s always nice to finish a session in first place. I like the Red Bull Ring, it’s a very technical track and I enjoy driving here,” he said.

Next up for the DTM is Free Practice 2, which is scheduled for 14.10 CET.