Mike Rockenfeller posted the fastest time in free practice of the DTM at the Hungaroring. The Audi driver completed his fastest lap of the 4.381 kilometres long Grand Prix circuit to the north-east of the Hungarian capital of Budapest in 1m36.404s.
That made him 0.160 seconds faster than his fellow Audi driver Nico Muller. Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann was third-fastest with his BMW M4 DTM, he came to a time of 1m36.984s.
“At the end, heavy rain set in, but we had 30 minutes of dry running in practice to prepare for the race,” Rockenfeller commented. “It went pretty well and I really enjoyed it. The Hungaroring is a great track and I hope that things will be going equally well for me tomorrow.”
Behind the top three, Mattias Ekström (Audi), Augusto Farfus (BMW), René Rast, Jamie Green (beide Audi) and Timo Glock (BMW) were classified in fourth to eighth place. Points’ leader Lucas Auer was ninth in free practice on Friday with his Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM. Audi’s Loïc Duval rounded out the top ten.
As rain set in at the end of free practice, the DTM drivers had to do without the trial safety car restart in Indy starting grid formation.
Second free practice of the DTM at the Hungaroring will be taking place on Saturday morning at 9.40 hrs.