DTM
Zandvoort: Friday practices report
Audi dominates first encounter The first DTM test at the Circuit Park Zandvoort ended with five Audis on the first five places. Fastest driver of the brand with the four rings on Friday morning was Martin Tomczyk. The driver from Rosenheim set a ...
Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:13 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Audi dominates first encounter
The first DTM test at the Circuit Park Zandvoort ended with five Audis on the first five places. Fastest driver of the brand with the four rings on Friday morning was Martin Tomczyk. The driver from Rosenheim set a fastest lap time of 1:34.758 minutes with his Audi A4 DTM on the 4.307 kilometres long track and was 0.027 seconds faster than Gary Paffett's DTM lap record at the track.
After 90 minutes of testing, his fellow-Audi driver Christian Abt was second with his one-year old car, exactly matching the lap record of 1:34.758 minutes. The Audi-dominance was completed by Tom Kristensen in third, Mattias Ekström in fourth and Timo Scheider in fifth position.
Fastest driver with a Mercedes-Benz was Bruno Spengler. The Canadian had been fourth behind the trio Kristensen, Ekström and Scheider for a long time, but then was pushed back into sixth after the fast lap times of Tomczyk and Abt. Spengler's fastest lap time with the AMG-Mercedes C-Class was 1:35.497 minutes, 0.739 seconds slower than Tomczyk. Mika Häkkinen was seventh behind Nürburgring-winner Spengler.
Ranking eighth with his 2004-spec Audi, Nicolas Kiesa made it into the top 10 and placed ahead of stalwart Jean Alesi and Stefan Mücke, both driving 2005-spec AMG-Mercedes C-Classes. DTM record champion and points leader, Bernd Schneider, occupied 13th place. Alexandros Margaritis only racked up little mileage in testing, as he had to park his AMG-Mercedes C-Class in the pits after five laps and then watched testing action from the pit wall. "On the first lap, we were already having trouble with the steering", the Greek explained.
Excellent time for Frentzen in second test
Contrarily to the first test session, the second test of the DTM at Zandvoort was initially dominated by Mercedes-Benz. But at the half-time mark, the situation was different as Heinz-Harald Frentzen set a fastest time that none of the 19 other DTM drivers was able to match during the remaining 45 minutes. The driver from Mönchengladbach lapped the 4.307 kilometres long track in 1.34.487 minutes, almost three tenths of a second faster than Tomczyk in the morning session.
After 90 minutes, second-placed Stefan Mücke was 0.415 seconds down with his AMG-Mercedes C-Class. Another eight thousandths of a second down, two times' race winner Spengler was third. Starting off with second-placed Mücke, twelve drivers ranged within three tenths of a second behind the fastest man of the day.
In completely dry conditions, numerous drivers used the second DTM test for long runs in order to find the right set-up for the race on Sunday. The three Audi teams completed a lot of work in the early stages of the session. Pierre Kaffer only joined into the action after 30 minutes, but then, he made the best of the time he had left and claimed ninth place.
Timo Scheider had to wait even longer before being able to go out: for him, the second test started only after 40 minutes. Eventually, he was twelfth. After a spin in the first test, there were problems with the floor section of Frank Stippler's Audi A4 DTM. In the second test, the Audi-driver had lack of grip. "Stippi" had too much pick-up on his new tyres and the team investigated to find out the reason. After 21 laps, Stippler was 19th.
Bruno Sperngler and Mika Häkkinen caused a lot of work for the Mercedes-crew. The winner of the last two DTM races came off the track coming out of the Tarzan corner and had plenty of work trying to avoid a crash. His mechanics remained unfazed and checked the C-Class.
After a spin in the second test, there was more work on Mika Häkkinen's AMG-Mercedes C-Class. The HWA-crew not only removed the gravel that he had picked up, but also removed the entire floor section to give the car a complete service overhaul. With a few minutes remaining, Häkkinen got back on the track. Eventually, the two times' Formula 1 World Champion was eighth.
The two seasoned title candidates, Tom Kristensen and Bernd Schneider, were well behind third-placed Bruno Spengler in the second test. 0.460 seconds down, Kristensen was seventh, Schneider was only 13th with a lap time of 1.35.202 minutes.
-credit: dtm
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Zandvoort Friday 2nd practice
Next article Tomczyk wins Audi boat race
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Stefan Mücke
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing returns to Fuji
WEC
WEC
Fuji
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing returns to Fuji
Mexico WEC: Porsche locks out front row, Ferrari on top in GT
WEC
WEC
Mexico City
Mexico WEC: Porsche locks out front row, Ferrari on top in GT
Ford battles door issues to grab Silverstone WEC win
WEC
WEC
Silverstone
Ford battles door issues to grab Silverstone WEC win
Latest news
Spire says Joe Gibbs Racing now seeking nearly $150M in damages
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 15 min
Spire says Joe Gibbs Racing now seeking nearly $150M in damages
Inception Racing switches to Corvette for 2027 IMSA GTD season
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 20 min
Inception Racing switches to Corvette for 2027 IMSA GTD season
Cadillac reveals date for F1 engine factory debut, thanks drivers for being “patient”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
22 min
Cadillac reveals date for F1 engine factory debut, thanks drivers for being “patient”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe