Molina (Audi) fastest in the DTM test

• Italiano

34 days prior to the season kick-off at Hockenheim, the preparations for the 2014 DTM season have entered their hot phase, as a total of 11 drivers representing Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz began the four official ITR test days at the Hungaroring racetrack.

In sunny conditions, Miguel Molina proved to be the quickest. With his Audi RS 5 DTM, he set the time of 1:37.792, the only driver to break the 1:38 barrier. Behind the Spaniard, his fellow Audi drivers Jamie Green (the quickest in the morning session), Adrien Tambay and reigning champion Mike Rockenfeller finished second, third and fourth respectively.

Bruno Spengler was fifth. The Canadian  set the fastest lap time of the BMW drivers followed by the two newcomers Maxim Martin and Antonio Felix da Costa as well as Joey Hand in another three BMWs M4 DTM. Behind the Bavarian’s quartet, the Mercedes-Benz camp was represented by DTM returnee Paul Di Resta, Gary Paffett and newcomer Vitaly Petrov at the wheel of the three DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupés.

The busiest driver on Monday was Spengler, who completed 109 laps, representing a total mileage of 477.529 kilometres. His fellow BMW driver Hand also broke the 100 lap barrier by completing 102 laps. Meanwhile, Green (93 laps) was the busiest Audi driver and Paffett (73) covered the biggest distance of the Mercedes-Benz drivers.

The first day of testing proved to be slightly shorter than scheduled. In certain sections of the 4.381-kilometre Formula 1 circuit, track-surface problems hampered the test action and so, the tests were stopped two hours earlier than scheduled to offer the track operators the chance of applying new tarmac where necessary. Therefore, the teams and drivers will be allowed to test an hour longer than scheduled both on Tuesday and Wednesday.