Hockenheim DTM: Wittmann sets Friday practice pace
BMW's Marco Wittmann set the fastest time in practice at Hockenheim as the DTM and SUPER GT cars hit the track together for the first time this weekend.
Wittmann's 1m29.881 lap came after R-Motorsport Aston Martin's Paul di Resta suffered a crash at the final corner, skating across the gravel and hitting the outside wall.
On-board footage showed his steering column dislodging slightly as Di Resta turned in.
When the track returned to green flag conditions, two-time DTM champion Wittmann improved on his best time twice to set a lap that was just over 0.6s clear of the Audi of 2019 champion Rene Rast.
Timo Glock, who topped the morning's wet running in first practice, finished third for BMW.
The first practice session proved dramatic for the SUPER GT field as TOM'S Lexus driver Nick Cassidy crashed at the Sachskurve, before the NISMO-run Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda suffered a similar incident.
That left 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button to rack up the laps for the SUPER GT field as it comes to grips with the DTM's Hankook control tyre and helps inform the Balance of Performance that could be used this weekend and at the Fuji joint-races.
Button progressively moved up the leaderboard before slipping to 16th overall and 2.6s off Glock's FP1 benchmark time of 1m47.841s.
The Kunimitsu Honda driver improved right at the end of the second session to again place as the lead SUPER GT driver in 15th, 2.1s off Wittmann's top time.
Ryo Hirakawa took over Cassidy's Lexus in the second session - which ran with an unpainted bonnet after Cassidy's morning crash showed spare parts are at a premium - and was 17th.
Multiple SUPER GT champion Ronnie Quintarelli placed his Nissan 21st and last.
Jamie Green placed fourth ahead of Audi stablemates Nico Muller and Mike Rockenfeller.
The top 10 in the second session was rounded out by Philipp Eng (BMW), WRT Audi's Pietro Fittipaldi, Bruno Spengler (BMW) and Loic Duval (Audi).
R-Motorsport, which will not take part in the Fuji joint-races, had Daniel Juncadella place as its highest driver in 12th.
The session finished with a practice safety car and a DTM-style restart to help the SUPER GT adaptation period.
FP2 results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 |
 Marco Wittmann
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'29.881 | |
| 2 | 33 |
René Rast
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'30.489 | 0.608 |
| 3 | 16 |
Timo Glock
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'30.583 | 0.702 |
| 4 | 53 |
 Jamie Green
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'30.656 | 0.775 |
| 5 | 51 |
 Nico Müller
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'30.916 | 1.035 |
| 6 | 99 |
Mike Rockenfeller
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'30.962 | 1.081 |
| 7 | 25 |
 Philipp Eng
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'31.026 | 1.145 |
| 8 | 21 |
 Pietro Fittipaldi
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'31.113 | 1.232 |
| 9 | 7 |
 Bruno Spengler
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'31.151 | 1.270 |
| 10 | 28 |
 Loic Duval
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'31.253 | 1.372 |
| 11 | 4 |
 Robin Frijns
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'31.689 | 1.808 |
| 12 | 23 |
 Daniel Juncadella
|
Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 1'31.855 | 1.974 |
| 13 | 62 |
Ferdinand Habsburg
|
Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 1'31.950 | 2.069 |
| 14 | 47 |
 Joel Eriksson
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'31.960 | 2.079 |
| 15 | 1 |
Jenson Button
|
Honda NSX-GT | 1'31.986 | 2.105 |
| 16 | 27 |
 Jonathan Aberdein
|
Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM | 1'32.291 | 2.410 |
| 17 | 37 |
 Nick Cassidy
|
Lexus LC500 | 1'32.339 | 2.458 |
| 18 | 31 |
Sheldon Van Der Linde
|
BMW M4 Turbo DTM | 1'32.531 | 2.650 |
| 19 | 3 |
Paul di Resta
|
Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 1'32.541 | 2.660 |
| 20 | 76 |
Jake Dennis
|
Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 1'33.301 | 3.420 |
| 21 | 35 |
 Tsugio Matsuda
|
Nissan/ R35 | 1'33.527 | 3.646 |
| View full results | |||||
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