Marco Wittmann made for the final fastest lap time the of the official four-day ITR tests at Barcelona. On Friday, in perfect weather conditions with temperatures of about 21.5° C, the DTM rookie hat was the quickest driver at the Circuit de Catalunya. He set his fastest time as early as in the morning session by crossing the line of the circuit’s 2.977-kilometre version with his BMW M3 DTM in 1:06.451 minutes.
Second position on the time sheets of day four was secured by Pascal Wehrlein, who is about to contest his first season on the grid of the most popular international touring-car series – just as Wittmann. With his DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, 18-year old Wehrlein set a personal fastest lap time of 1:06.687 minutes and was the fastest in the afternoon session – but finished 0.235 seconds behind Wittmann, in the end. Christian Vietoris (Mercedes-Benz) came third, with his personal fastest lap time of1:06,706 minutes, followed by the best Audi driver, Timo Scheider. The fastest lap time Scheider achieved with his RS 5 DTM (1:06,844 minutes) was 0.393 seconds slower than the one of Wittmann.
Thanks to Wittmann, BMW also secured one of the fastest lap times on the Barcelona time sheets. On the previous three days, the fastest lap times were secured by the two Mercedes-Benz drivers Robert Wickens (Tuesday/1:06.735 minutes) and Gary Paffett (Wednesday/1:06.149) as well as Audi’s new signing Jamie Green (Thursday/1:07.171). So, Paffett also proved to be the quickest of the entire four days of testing. While the fastest man on Friday also was the busiest: Marco Wittmann completed 220 laps, representing a total mileage of 654.94 kilometres, on a single day of testing at Barcelona.
Prior to the season kick-off, held on 05th May at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, the teams of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz will have another four days of testing for their preparations for the coming season. From 09th to 12th April, Hockenheim will be the venue of the second and final ITR tests, with the 09th April also representing the official DTM Media Day.
On the four days of the first official ITR tests, the teams and drivers gathered a lot of – predominantly positive – experiences with two technical innovations. The one innovation were the new Hankook option tyres and the other the new Drag Reduction System, DRS, that allows the drivers to change the adjustment of the rear wing for a certain amount of time to temporarily increase their top speed.
