Mattias Ekström fastest in final free practice in Hockenheim
Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekström topped the timesheets in the third and final free practice held this morning at Hockenheim, host of the opening round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.
The weather conditions remained sunny and warm, albeit a bit gentler thanks to the presence of some wind, which allowed the DTM drivers to improve on yesterday’s lap times.
The Swede from Team Abt Sportsline set a best lap of 1:33.833 around the Baden-Wüttemberg track in his RS 5 DTM, after a battle with fellow Audi drivers Edoardo Mortara and Nico Müller.
2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller was second, 0.141 seconds behind his team-mate. Paul Di Resta broke the Audi dominance to be third and best of the Mercedes AMG C63 DTM, 0.286 seconds off the pace.
Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara followed for the Ingolstadt squad, with Mercedes’ Robert Wickens in sixth, followed by Tom Blomqvist, who was the top man for BMW Motorsport, 0.669 seconds behind Ekström.
Nico Müller was eighth for Audi, followed by BMW’s Maxime Martin and Mercedes’ Max Götz completing the top 10.
The session was largely trouble free, with only a few drivers braking late and going wide as remarkable incidents. The last minutes of the session were dedicated to practicing slow zones, which had to be activated three times in yesterday’s race.
Next for the DTM is the qualifying for Race 2 at 12:30 CEST.
