Filipe Albuquerque sets fastest time in first free practice

Fan weather at the Nurburgring: the Eifel, normally rather changeable, presented itself in its best way on Friday: bright sunshine and temperatures beyond 25 degrees. For Saturday and Sunday, temperatures of over 30 degrees have been forecast. For the DTM, first free practice was scheduled. Filipe Albuquerque set the fastest time in the 90 minutes’ session with his Audi A5 DTM.

With his fastest lap time of 1:25.007 minutes, the Portuguese topped an Audi trio in the first three positions. Mattias Ekström and Mike Rockenfeller ended up second and third respectively. Norisring winner Jamie Green drove the fastest AMG Mercedes C-Coupé in fourth place, Dirk Werner was classified ninth as the fastest driver with a BMW M3 DTM. Rahel Frey was the best-placed lady racer in eleventh place with her Audi A5 DTM.

“First free practice went very well. We were able to try out many things on the car," said Albuquerque. “I still had one fresh set of tires left, with which I could do a really fast lap. That is good, because conditions will be similar in qualifying tomorrow and now I got a feeling for them. But I remain realistic, Friday doesn’t mean anything in DTM."

At the 3.629 kilometers long track, lap times of the first 14 drivers, all the way down to BMW driver Andy Priaulx, were within one second. Edoardo Mortara drove the most laps with his Audi A5 DTM. With 48 laps, the Italian completed a distance of 174.192 kilometers. His fastest lap time made him end up eighth.

Results