Christian Vietoris set the final fastest lap time of the four-day ITR tests at Budapest’s Hungaroring. Just as on day three, the German out-paced all the other drivers by crossing the line of the 4.381-kilometre circuit with his DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé in 1:37.620 minutes. Nonetheless, he was slightly slower than on Wednesday when he set the fastest lap time of the entire four days of testing: 1:37.461 minutes. On the first two days, the fastest lap times were set by two Audi RS 5 DTM drivers. On Monday, Miguel Molina (1:37.792) proved to be the quickest and on Tuesday, DTM rookie Nico Müller (1:37,505) secured the position at the top of the time sheets.
The tests on Thursday were once again executed by a total of 12 drivers, with Miguel Molina replacing Edoardo Mortara — the quickest in the morning session — in the afternoon at the wheel of one of the Audis RS 5 DTM. In the end, Mortara’s time was good enough to finish fourth behind vice-champion Augusto Farfus and DTM rookie with their BMWs M4 DTM. And Audi’s reigning champion Mike Rockenfeller, who finished fifth, also broke the 1:38-minute barrier.
Sixth place was secured by the second-fastest DTM Mercedes AMG Coupé driver, Daniel Juncadella, followed Mattias Ekström (Audi) and Robert Wickens (Mercedes-Benz). Timo Glock (BMW), Jamie Green (Audi) and Martin Tomczyk (BMW) finished eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
The busiest driver on Thursday was Mattias Ekström who completed 136 laps, representing a total mileage of 595.816 kilometres. The Marathon-Man title of the Hungaroring tests, however, was secured by Timo Glock who completed 154 laps — representing a mileage of 674.670 kilometres — on Wednesday. The BMW driver also covered the biggest distance of the entire tests: 1,217.918 kilometres and 278 laps respectively. Audi’s Nico Müller completed just one lap less (277), with the busiest Mercedes-Benz driver, Robert Wickens, leaving Hungary with the experience of 255 laps under his belt. Altogether, the 23 DTM drivers completed 4,996 laps, in Hungary, representing a total mileage of 21,887.476 or more than half the distance of a trip around mother earth.
From 14th to 17th April, teams and drivers will have the chance of testing for another four days at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, the venue of the season opener held on 04th May. While Budapest will stage — on 01st June — the third round of the season.
Edoardo Mortara (Audi RS 5 DTM): “Returning behind the wheel after the long off-season always represents a big pleasure. Furthermore, it was my first test with my new team. You get to know new people and faces. I worked for the first time with my new engineers and the cooperation was rather nice. In addition, we had successful days of testing. We completed our scheduled testing programme and achieved everything we had planned to. We learned several things that will prove to be useful, during the course of the season. Now it’s about making a perfect analysis of all the data to optimally prepare for the coming tests at Hockenheim. The Hungaroring is demanding and a rather complete racetrack. But I fear that overtaking will be rather difficult.”
Augusto Farfus (BMW M4 DTM): “I think we can be rather happy with our achievements in the Hungaroring tests. Our new BMW M4 DTM didn’t encounter any major problems. We could complete a lot of laps and our pace also was good. At this point of the season preparations, being fast doesn’t represent a top priority. It’s far more important to try different things to be prepared for any eventuality, in the season to come. Driving my BMW DTM M4 in its current livery was something special. Everybody in the team is burning — and we just can’t wait for the next tests and the season kick-off at Hockenheim.”
Testing times, Thursday, 03rd April, Hungaroring tests completed: 1st Christian Vietoris (DEU) DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé 1:37.620 minutes
2nd Augusto Farfus (BRA) BMW M4 DTM 1:37.640
3rd Maxime Martin (BEL) BMW M4 DTM 1:37.733
4th Edoardo Mortara (ITA) Audi RS5 DTM 1:37.806
5th Mike Rockenfeller (DEU) Audi RS5 DTM 1:37.842
6th Daniel Juncadella (ESP) DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé 1:38.122
7th Mattias Ekström (SWE) Audi RS5 DTM 1:38.191
8th Robert Wickens (CAN) DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé 1:38.252
9th Miguel Molina (ESP) Audi RS 5 DTM 1:38.279
10th Timo Glock (DEU) BMW M4 DTM 1:38.289
11th Jamie Green (GBR) Audi RS 5 DTM 1:38.455
12th Martin Tomczyk (DEU) BMW M4 DTM 1:38.933
Source: dtm.com