Rookie Tom Blomqvist kept BMW on top in the second day of the DTM’s final pre-season test at Oschersleben, leading fellow Brit Gary Paffett.
After reigning champion Marco Wittmann led Tuesday’s first day of running, Blomqvist was fastest on Wednesday with a 1m20.216s lap set in the afternoon.
In a strong day, the F3 graduate was also second in the morning, his 1m20.431s just over a tenth behind pacesetter Paffett in the ART-run Mercedes.
While he didn’t improve in the afternoon and was fifth for the session, Paffett’s 1m20.309s remained the second-fastest of the day, while Mattias Ekstrom was third for Audi, ensuring each manufacturer was represented in the top three.
“We basically had a great test,” two-time DTM champion Ekstrom said.
“The conditions were good and we tried a lot of different things. Fine-tuning is the name of the game in the DTM at the moment.”
Led by Blomqvist, the afternoon was dominated by BMW, with Martin Tomczyk and Maxime Martin second and third.
Tomczyk’s 1m20.578s, set inside the final 10 minutes, elevated him from seventh in the morning to fourth overall.
Mercedes pair Pascal Wehrlein and Daniel Juncadella missed the bulk of the morning running, with Juncadella’s stoppage causing a red flag, and they ended the day fifth and 12th respectively.
Beyond Ekstrom it was a quiet day for Audi with Jamie Green and Timo Scheider the next best in eighth and ninth.
Scheider handed his car over to Phoenix team-mate Mike Rockenfeller at lunchtime, meaning a total of 13 drivers set times.
The three-day test concludes on Thursday.
DAY TWO TIMES:
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1. Tom Blomqvist BMW 1m20.216s 132 2. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m20.309s 0.093s 146 3. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m20.531s 0.315s 158 4. Martin Tomczyk BMW 1m20.578s 0.362s 138 5. Pascal Wehrlein Mercedes 1m20.622s 0.406s 83 6. Maxime Martin BMW 1m20.640s 0.424s 154 7. Timo Glock BMW 1m20.804s 0.588s 142 8. Jamie Green Audi 1m20.906s 0.690s 147 9. Timo Scheider Audi 1m20.984s 0.768s 74 10. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m21.010s 0.794s 124 11. Edoardo Mortara Audi 1m21.021s 0.805s 136 12. Daniel Juncadella Mercedes 1m21.218s 1.002s 75 13. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m21.243s 1.027s 66
