Gary Paffett continued his near-perfect start to the 2012 DTM season with a commanding victory in front of his home crowd at Brands Hatch.

From pole position, the HWA Mercedes driver steadily built his lead up to almost three seconds over Bruno Spengler’s fast-starting Schnitzer BMW by half-distance and eventually won by nearly twice that amount to increase his championship lead to 25 points over the Canadian.

Spengler was on a charge in the second half of the race, and spurred on by the combination of slight contact for Paffett when he was lapping Adrien Tambay’s Audi and a quicker pitstop than the home hero, reduced his deficit to a little over 1s with 20 laps left.

As hard as he pushed though, Spengler could not get any closer, and instead had his mirrors full of Mike Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Audi by the finish. The German could not make his speed count and finished behind the BMW to take what was still his best finish of the year.

Last year’s Brands Hatch winner Martin Tomczyk was the chief overtaker in the opening few laps. The defending series champion passed Christian Vietoris for seventh at Clearways on the opening lap after the HWA driver fluffed his start from the outside of the front row, and he then repeated the move on Tambay’s Abt Audi a lap later, although not without first pushing the Frenchman wide mid-corner.

He latched on to the tail of Filipe Albuquerque’s Audi but could not pass until the second round of pitstops, when the Rosberg pit crew had a problem tightening his right-front wheel. That lost the Portuguese driver four seconds and the same number of places.

Other than Tomczyk, who took his best finish of the year in fourth, the chief beneficiaries of Albuquerque’s problem were Abt driver Mattias Ekstrom and Vietoris, who came home fifth and sixth.

Next up was Miguel Molina, who came out ninth after his final stop, but passed Albuquerque and Mortara in separate moves on the run up to Paddock during the final 20 laps.

The Rosberg cars both appeared to suffer from braking issues late on as both cars ran wide at Druids while under pressure from Jamie Green and ceded position to the HWA Mercedes driver.

Green finished eighth, ahead of Mortara and Albuquerque. Augusto Farfus looked set to be in the hunt as well, but spent too long bottled up behind Tambay and could not make enough of an inroad into his deficit to the Rosberg cars in the final stint.

Andy Priaulx was an early retiree after sustaining damage to his RBM BMW and making an unscheduled tyre stop, while Timo Scheider pulled out at half distance with an engine problem.

Results – 97 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1h10m01.585s

 2.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW         + 5.065s

 3.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi          + 5.579s

 4.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW               + 5.997s

 5.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             + 22.416s

 6.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         + 23.195s

 7.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         + 23.689s

 8.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes         + 24.284s

 9.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         + 25.779s

10.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi         + 29.582s

11.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW              + 30.302s

12.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi             + 33.015s

13.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW              + 35.977s

14.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes       + 36.340s

15.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes         + 1 lap

16.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW          + 1 lap

17.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes       + 1 lap

18.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi               + 1 lap

19.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes           + 1 lap

20.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes       + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Timo Scheider       Abt Audi               55 laps

     Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW                12 laps

Susie Wolff will start Sunday’s DTM race at Brands Hatch from the back of the grid after breaking yellow flag rules during warm-up.

The Persson Mercedes driver was adjudged to have set her fastest time in sector three under yellow flag conditions.

As a result she was handed a five-place grid penalty, which drops her from 21st to 22nd and last, behind Rahel Frey’s Audi.

Gary Paffett took his first DTM pole position for almost two years at Brands Hatch to head an all-Mercedes front row.

The British driver’s single-lap Q4 time of 41.266 seconds was enough to put him on provisional pole with only Q3 pacesetter Mike Rockenfeller to come. And when the German could only lap in 41.484s, Paffett’s eighth career pole – and his first on home soil – was assured.

Christian Vietoris took a career-best second place on the grid, 0.144s slower than his HWA team-mate Paffett and just 0.052s clear of Schnitzer BMW’s Bruno Spengler, who put two wheels in the gravel at Paddock Hill bend on his way to third.

Rockenfeller’s fourth place meant that the Phoenix Audi driver maintained his status as the only driver to start inside the top five in every race this year.

Practice pacesetter Martin Tomczyk set an identical time to Vietoris in Q3, but remained fifth by virtue of having achieved it after the HWA man. He will start alongside Filipe Albuquerque, who took his best grid spot of the year in his Rosberg Audi.

Adrien Tambay was surprisingly the best of the Abt Audi drivers in a career-best seventh spot while his team-mate Mattias Ekstrom, RBM BMW man Augusto Farfus and HWA Mercedes driver Jamie Green completed the top 10.

Timo Scheider failed to make Q3 for the second event in a row, the Abt Audi man going off at Surtees and bouncing across the grass before rejoining moments later. He will start 15th.

Among the others knocked out in Q2 were Andy Priaulx – 14th in his RBM BMW – and Rosberg Audi driver Edoraro Mortara, who lost his Q3 place to Tambay by just 0.05s after the chequered flag had come out.

David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher were the highest-profile drivers to be eliminated from Q1. While Coulthard never featured inside the top-16 progression zone, Schumacher was dropped outside it thanks to quick laps from Priaulx and Vietoris late on.

Despite improving his time on his final lap, the six-time grand prix winner could not improve on 18th spot in his HWA car. Coulthard will start two places further back with Susie Wolff’s Persson Mercedes next up.

Coulthard’s Mucke Mercedes team-mate Robert Wickens was the best-placed driver to fail to make it into Q2, the Canadian agonisingly missing out by just 0.002s in a session where a little over 0.4s separated the top 21 cars.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time     Gap

 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      41.266s

 2.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      41.410s  + 0.144s

 3.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     41.462s  + 0.196s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller   Abt Audi          41.484s  + 0.218s

 5.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           41.101s  Q3

 6.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      41.142s  Q3

 7.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          41.156s  Q3

 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          41.163s  Q3

 9.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           41.172s  Q3

10.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      41.284s  Q3

11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      41.381s  Q2

12.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      41.392s  Q2

13.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           41.399s  Q2

14.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           41.403s  Q2

15.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          41.479s  Q2

16.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  41.524s  Q2

17.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    41.584s  Q1

18.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      41.587s  Q1

19.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     41.655s  Q1

20.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    41.657s  Q1

21.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  41.677s  Q1

22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          41.956s  Q1

Augusto Farfus kept BMW on top in the second DTM practice session at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning.

The Brazilian, who took his maiden series podium last time out at Lausitz, set the pace in 41.312s in his RBM M3, over a second quicker than Martin Tomczyk’s Friday best.

Mattias Ekstrom served notice of Audi’s intent to recover from its poor start to the season with the second quickest time for Abt Sportsline, just 0.035s behind, while champion Tomczyk was third, 0.051s off Farfus’ time.

Championship leader Gary Paffett was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fourth, but the HWA man suffered an off identical to the one he had on Friday, the Brit going straight on at the left-hand part of Surtees and cutting across the grass as he headed towards the pit entrance.

Miguel Molina was fifth quickest in his Phoenix Audi and was within 0.1s of the best time. Fellow Audi men Timo Scheider (Abt) and Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg) were next up.

Jamie Green, who put two wheels into the gravel while exiting Paddock with a few minutes to go, was eighth for HWA while Mike Rockenfeller (Phoenix) and Adrien Tambay (Abt) completed the top 10.

Andy Priaulx was 19th in his RBM BMW, with Mercedes pair Susie Wolff (Persson) and David Coulthard (Mucke) taking the final two spots, albeit both still within 0.9s of the pace.

Pos   Driver             Team/Car           Time         Gap

 1.  Augusto Farfus      RMG BMW            41.312s

 2.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi           41.347s   + 0.035s

 3.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW            41.363s   + 0.051s

 4.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes       41.386s   + 0.074s

 5.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi       41.395s   + 0.083s

 6.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi           41.438s   + 0.126s

 7.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi       41.447s   + 0.135s

 8.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes       41.476s   + 0.164s

 9.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi       41.511s   + 0.199s

10.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi           41.533s   + 0.221s

11.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW      41.561s   + 0.249s

12.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi       41.565s   + 0.253s

13.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes       41.603s   + 0.291s

14.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes     41.614s   + 0.302s

15.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes       41.624s   + 0.312s

16.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW      41.639s   + 0.327s

17.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW            41.691s   + 0.379s

18.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes   41.715s   + 0.403s

19.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW            41.838s   + 0.526s

20.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           41.879s   + 0.567s

21.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes   41.967s   + 0.655s

22.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes     42.197s   + 0.885s

The defending champion sat at or near the top of the timesheets throughout the 90 minutes of track time, and lapped the 1.2-mile Indy circuit in less than 42.5 seconds on a number of occasions.

The Team RMG driver eventually got his time down to a 42.415s lap in his M3, which was enough to end the session 0.077s ahead of championship leader Gary Paffett.

Paffett had the most significant moment of the session as he ran straight on at the entrance to Surtees just after the midway point. The British driver’s HWA Mercedes slowed to a crawl on the moist grass and cut out the entire final corner before taking to the pitlane to have the greenery removed.

Paffett had been outside the top 10 at that point, but climbed to second with his final lap of the session.

His lap demoted his team-mate Christian Vietoris to third, the German having been fastest in the first half of the session in 42.495s and then failing to improve later on as the threat of rain hung over the circuit.

Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi were other Mercedes men to set quick late laps for the Mucke and Persson teams respectively, elevating the pair to fifth and sixth, ahead of Augusto Farfus’ RBM BMW.

Mattias Ekstrom was the best of the Audi drivers in eighth for the Abt team while HWA duo Ralf Schumacher and Jamie Green completed the top 10.

Grand prix winner David Coulthard was 16th quickest for Mucke, one place ahead of Andy Priaulx’s RBM BMW and three ahead of Susie Wolff’s Persson Mercedes.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time     Gap
 1.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           42.415s
 2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      42.492s  + 0.077s
 3.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      42.495s  + 0.080s
 4.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    42.497s  + 0.082s
 5.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  42.503s  + 0.088s
 6.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     42.510s  + 0.095s
 7.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           42.517s  + 0.102s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          42.597s  + 0.182s
 9.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      42.632s  + 0.217s
10.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      42.669s  + 0.254s
11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      42.687s  + 0.272s
12.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      42.708s  + 0.293s
13.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          42.744s  + 0.329s
14.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          42.774s  + 0.359s
15.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           42.804s  + 0.389s
16.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    42.832s  + 0.417s
17.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           42.841s  + 0.426s
18.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      42.844s  + 0.429s
19.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  42.876s  + 0.461s
20.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      42.877s  + 0.462s
21.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     42.970s  + 0.555s
22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          43.201s  + 0.786s

BMW is not expecting to continue its winning form when the DTM comes to Brands Hatch this weekend.

Bruno Spengler gave the manufacturer its 50th series win last time out at Lausitz in what was only its second race back after a 20-year absence.

But motorsport director Jens Marquardt said that he was not getting his hopes up about a repeat on Sunday and that a lack of familiarity with the 1.2-mile Indy circuit will hamper BMW’s progress.

“We are well aware that we are entering unchartered territory at this circuit,” said Marquardt. “We have yet to drive a single metre there with a DTM car and have no set-up data available.

“The first two races have shown us that the M3 DTM is competitive, but the balance of power could look completely different this weekend.”

Defending champion Martin Tomczyk, who joined the RMG BMW team during the winter, won last year’s wet Brands Hatch race on his way to a surprise title success.

He believes that any performance deficit to rivals Mercedes and Audi will be highlighted in qualifying, with the shortness of the circuit meaning that an even closer than normal gap between the cars is expected on Saturday.

“It is an extremely short circuit and this means that qualifying will be even closer than at the first two race weekends,” said the German.

“The grid positions will determine whether or not you can challenge at the front of the field during the race, and overtaking opportunities are few and far between in Brands Hatch.”

BMW’s British hopes lie with Andy Priaulx, who is eighth in the championship after a strong sixth-placed finish at the Hockenheim season-opener.

Mattias Ekstrom believes that Audi must raise its game at Brands Hatch this weekend if he is to avoid losing touch with Mercedes drivers Gary Paffett and Jamie Green in the championship.

Paffett leads the standings with 43 points with his HWA team-mate Green 13 behind and Abt Sportsline man Ekstrom five further back and level with BMW driver Bruno Spengler.

And after finishing around 20 seconds behind the winner at each of the first two rounds, the two-time series champion is adamant that Audi must bounce back at the British circuit this weekend.

“We analysed the first two races and now we’ve got to try and find the thread again that we lost somewhere along the way,” said Ekstrom. “But you can find something again as quickly as you can lose it. So finding it is the task now.”

Audi won at Brands Hatch last year thanks to eventual champion Martin Tomczyk triumphing in the wet in his Phoenix Racing A4, but none of its cars has finished higher than third so far this year.

Head of Audi Sport Wolfgang Ullrich said at Lausitz that the main problem encountered by the new A5 DTM has been a result of the Abt, Phoenix and Rosberg teams “not finding the real window for our set-up to get the tyres working as they should”.

He said that getting back into contention to add to Audi’s three previous DTM wins at Brands was the minimum requirement from the Brands Hatch weekend.

“Our aim is to get back – preferably as early as at Brands Hatch – to where we were in all the years, which is being in contention for victory,” he said.

“That’s why between the Lausitz and Brands Hatch we’ve had two intensive weeks of hard work that we’ve made optimum use of.”

McLaren Formula 1 driver Jenson Button will try out the passenger version of Mercedes’ latest DTM car when the series visits Brands Hatch this weekend.

Button will receive instruction from Mercedes’ DTM driver and McLaren F1 reserve Gary Paffett before giving his compatriot a passenger ride around the Kent circuit.

Button will also sign autographs for fans outside the Mercedes-Benz hospitality unit at 11.10 on Sunday, before joining a live Q&A session chaired by DTM regular and BBC F1 pundit David Coulthard.

“Brands Hatch is one of the circuits where I cut my teeth in junior single-seaters and I have many fond memories of the place – in Formula Ford, the Formula Ford Festival, and in British Formula 3. It’s one of the greatest tracks in the world, and a place with an awful lot of motorsport history,” said Button.

“Gary’s also given me the chance to drive the DTM ‘race taxi’ with him – it’ll be the first time I’ve driven Brands since doing F3 there back in 1999. It’s going to be very cool.

“I think the DTM weekend will be a great event – it’s a fantastic series with some excellent, close racing and some of the best drivers in the world. For me, it’s going to be a great personal experience and a fantastic opportunity to get up-close and personal with all the British fans who have been supporting me over the years.”

Paffett currently leads the DTM standings after two rounds, having taken victory in the Hockenheim season-opener and second place behind BMW’s Bruno Spengler at Lausitz.

Bruno Spengler said he was left “in a dream world” after taking BMW’s first DTM victory for 20 years at Lausitz on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Canadian started from pole position and resisted intense race-long pressure from Gary Paffett, the Mercedes driver spending most of the 52 laps less than a second behind the Schnitzer-run machine.

Spengler, who switched from Mercedes to BMW during the winter, delivered the manufacturer’s 50th DTM victory in only its second race since returning to the series after a long absence.

“It’s difficult to describe. It’s a crazy feeling,” said Spengler. “I was the first one to do a BMW pole position since they came back. Now the 50th victory for BMW is such a special feeling.

“After I crossed the start/finish line I felt crazy. I just wanted to get out of the car and run everywhere. It was amazing and it still feels like I’m in some kind of dream.”

Spengler paid tribute to his Schnitzer mechanics, who delivered two mistake-free pitstops just over 24 hours after allowing their driver to leave the track without his front-right wheel properly attached in practice.

“The guys did such an amazing job,” he added. “The pitstops they [the mechanics] improved all weekend, and they were up practicing late last night. And in the race they were perfect.

“We had a lot of pressure from Gary but we still managed to be strong and made no mistakes. I’ll remember that race for all the rest of my life.”

Bruno Spengler gave BMW its first DTM win for 20 years after resisting extreme race-long pressure from Gary Paffett’s Mercedes at Lausitz.

A rocket start from Paffett from third on the grid brought him onto the tail of polesitter Spengler at the first corner of the race, and the pair were able to pull away from the pursuing back during the early stages.

While the gap between the two stabilised at under a second for most of the race, Schnitzer driver Spengler was able to crucially increase his advantage to around 1.5s as both rounds of mandatory pitstops approached.

This meant that despite the HWA team twice giving Paffett a quicker pitstop and the British driver producing better in and out laps than his rival, Spengler was just able to keep the lead.

Championship leader Paffett spent the last 16 laps right on his rival’s bootlid; the gap never increasing beyond 0.6s. But he was unable to mount a passing move. He lost any chance of passing Spengler when he braked slightly too late at Turn 1 on the final lap, bumping over the Ludwig kerbs and dropping more than 1s behind.

That ensured that Spengler took his 10th DTM victory and the first for BMW since Roberto Ravaglia’s double win at Hockenheim in October 1992 – also in a Schnitzer-run car.

Behind them another BMW/Mercedes battle ensued as Augusto Farfus, who had lost second place to Paffett at the start, resisted similar pressure from Jamie Green’s HWA car for the second half of the race.

Green, who had started sixth, made an excellent move to deprive Edoardo Mortara’s Rosberg Audi of fourth on lap nine and then ran 10 laps longer than any of the other frontrunners during his first stint to move onto the tail of Farfus’s RBM-run M3.

A slow final pitstop for Green, caused as the HWA mechanics struggled to fit his left-rear wheel, meant a stationary time more than 3s longer than the Brazilian and ensured he stayed behind entering the final stint. No matter how hard he tried, he could not deny Farfus a maiden DTM podium on only his second start in the series.

Mattias Ekstrom had a steady run to fifth, the Swede finishing a second ahead of his Abt Audi team-mate Timo Scheider, who had started 12th, copied Green’s strategy of running a long first stint and took full advantage by exiting the pits after his final stop side by side with Ekstrom.

Champion Martin Tomczyk, who had battled with Green and Mortara for fourth during the first third of the race, took his first points finish since switching from Audi to BMW with seventh, while Mortara and his team-mate Filipe Albuquerque were next up.

After starting fourth, Mike Rockenfeller dropped four places on the opening lap, let Scheider by for eighth early on and then endured a long final pitstop due to a problem with the right-rear wheel. The German had looked set to complete the points finishers in the Phoenix Audi, but fell to 13th instead.

That should have handed Robert Wickens his maiden DTM point, but the Canadian’s Mucke Mercedes ground to a halt with a mechanical problem with four laps left. Ralf Schumacher (HWA) picked up the final point instead.

Results – 52 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1h09m45.795s

 2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes          + 1.019s

 3.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW               + 7.069s

 4.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes          + 7.676s

 5.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             + 21.362s

 6.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi             + 22.607s

 7.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW              + 25.446s

 8.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         + 32.202s

 9.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi         + 32.658s

10.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes         + 35.513s

11.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         + 45.699s

12.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes       + 46.355s

13.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi         + 47.667s

14.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW              + 48.034s

15.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         + 48.836s

16.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes     + 56.454s

17.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW              + 58.984s

18.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi           + 1m04.646s

19.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW      + 1m05.201s

20.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           + 1m08.570s

21.  Susie Wolff         Mucke Mercedes         + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Robert Wickens      Persson Mercedes       47 laps

Christian Vietoris has been given a two-place grid penalty for the next round of the DTM at Brands Hatch after blocking Bruno Spengler during qualifying at Lausitz.

After reviewing video evidence and a timekeeping report, race stewards decided that the HWA Mercedes driver had impeded the progress of polesitter Spengler’s Schnitzer BMW during the second part of qualifying.

This contravenes article 33.3 of the DTM sporting regulations, meaning that the German, who lies fourth in the championship, will receive the penalty at the British circuit.

Vietoris will start 16th for Sunday’s Lausitz race.

BMW claimed its first DTM pole position since 1992 as Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus locked out the front row at Lausitz.

Spengler had sewn the seeds of his pole in Q3, the Canadian having only completed two laps on his way to setting the third fastest time. Not only did this secure his progression to the single-lap Q4 shoot-out, it also meant his tyres were less worn than those of his rivals, who had all completed three laps already.

The Schnitzer driver’s 1m18.777s lap knocked Gary Paffett’s HWA Mercedes off the top spot, and was then unchallenged by both Mike Rockenfeller and Farfus.

Farfus came closest to beating Spengler ahead of what will be only his second DTM start on Sunday. The RBM driver was 0.038s slower than his stablemate. Championship leader Paffett will head the second row ahead of Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Audi.

Edoardo Mortara failed to repeat his Hockenheim achievement of making Q4, but the Rosberg Audi did enough to secure fifth on the grid, ahead of HWA’s Jamie Green, the RMG BMW of champion Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom’s Abt Audi.

Two more Audi drivers followed with Miguel Molina (Phoenix) ninth and Adrien Tambay (Abt) continuing his impressive rookie DTM campaign with 10th – his first top 10 qualifying result. He had earlier edged out Mortara’s team-mate Filipe Albuquerque by just 0.006s to reach Q3.

The big surprise of Q2 was that two-time champion Timo Scheider was eliminated, the Abt driver failing to make the cut in 12th despite setting a time only 0.4s slower than pacesetter Farfus. His fate was sealed when first Paffett and then Spengler pumped in late fliers to ensure their own progression.

For the second year in a row, Ralf Schumacher followed up a promising race result at the previous event by failing to make it out of Q1 at Lausitz, the HWA man one of four Mercedes drivers among the six names eliminated from the opening part of qualifying.

Fellow grand prix winner David Coulthard was among them too, the Mucke driver twice locking up in the final complex of corners and ending up 20th on the grid.

Mike Rockenfeller set the pace in the second free practice session for this weekend’s Lausitz DTM round as Audis took the top seven positions on Saturday morning.

The A5s dominated proceedings with Rosberg driver Filipe Albuquerque and then Abt’s Mattias Ekstrom heading the timesheets during the closing stages of the 90-minute session.

Ekstrom’s 1m18.694s lap was not good enough to keep him on top though as Rockenfeller took his Phoenix-run car to the top spot in 1m18.352s with 90 seconds remaining.

Ekstrom was then pushed further back as his team-mates Adrien Tambay and Timo Scheider nipped in front of the Swede; Scheider, who had earlier run off the track at Turn 1 and negotiated his way around the tyre barriers on the Lausitz oval, taking second place in a time just 0.117s slower than Rockenfeller.

Tambay was third with Albuquerque also getting in front of Ekstrom in the dying seconds. Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg) and Miguel Molina (Phoenix) completed the Audi rout.

Jamie Green was the best of the Mercedes drivers in eighth for HWA, while his team-mate Christian Vietoris was next up. RBM driver Augusto Farfus completed the top 10 in the best of the BMWs.

The most significant incident of the session came within the first half hour. Bruno Spengler made a practice pitstop, but left without his right-front wheel having been properly attached.

He drove around slowly for half a lap before the wheelnut came off altogether. He stopped on track – with the wheel still attached – as a safety precaution and was towed back to the pits. Later the Schnitzer driver returned to the track and went 15th quickest in a session that featured just over a second between the top 20 cars.

David Coulthard spun his Mucke Mercedes early on at Turn 1 while Ralf Schumacher took a heavy-looking bump over the exit kerbs there in his HWA machine.

Championship leader Gary Paffett ended the session 16th in his HWA Mercedes.

Results to follow…

Martin Tomczyk led a BMW one-two in the opening free practice session ahead of this weekend’s second round of the DTM at Lausitz.

The 2011 champion, who was an early retiree from the Hockenheim season-opener, put his RMG BMW at the top of the timesheets with a lap in 1m20.118s with 22 minutes of the 90 remaining, knocking Mattias Ekstrom’s Abt Audi off the top spot in the process.

Tomczyk’s RMG team-mate Joey Hand was only 0.017 seconds slower, the American showing impressive speed in the final few minutes of the session to push Ekstrom down to third spot.

Christian Vietoris was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fourth place for HWA, while David Coulthard followed up his Hockenheim speed with fifth.

Sixth went to Miguel Molina’s Phoenix Audi, with RBM BMW’s Augusto Farfus, Persson Mercedes’ Roberto Merhi and the best of the Rosberg Audis – that of Filipe Albuquerque – next up. Timo Scheider (Abt) completed the top 10.

HWA Mercedes duo Gary Paffett and Jamie Green, who lie first and second in the championship, were 12th and 13th respectively.

Andy Priaulx was 20th fastest in his RBM BMW, but was significantly less than a second off Tomczyk’s pacesetting time.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m20.118s

 2.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m20.135s  + 0.017s

 3.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m20.142s  + 0.024s

 4.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m20.204s  + 0.086s

 5.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m20.253s  + 0.135s

 6.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m20.330s  + 0.212s

 7.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m20.341s  + 0.223s

 8.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m20.358s  + 0.240s

 9.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m20.361s  + 0.243s

10.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m20.379s  + 0.261s

11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1m20.399s  + 0.281s

12.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m20.399s  + 0.281s

13.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m20.417s  + 0.299s

14.  Robert Wickens      Persson Mercedes  1m20.450s  + 0.332s

15.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      1m20.487s  + 0.369s

16.  Susie Wolff         Mucke Mercedes    1m20.507s  + 0.389s

17.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m20.782s  + 0.664s

18.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m20.807s  + 0.689s

19.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m20.856s  + 0.738s

20.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m21.080s  + 0.962s

21.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m21.788s  + 1.670s

22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m21.843s  + 1.725s

BMW and Audi face a race against time to get their full contingent of cars ready for this weekend’s second round of the DTM at Lausitz, according to leading figures from both manufacturers.

The Lausitz round takes place just seven days after the Hockenheim season-opener, at which Mercedes filled three of the first four places and cars from the rival manufacturers were involved in a number of collisions.

Schnitzer drivers Bruno Spengler and Dirk Werner were both hit by Ralf Schumacher’s Mercedes early on, with the Canadian retiring with the damage, while further collisions with rivals ended champion Martin Tomczyk’s race and caused Joey Hand to fall to the back of the field.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said that his organisation will work day and night to get the six M3 machines ready in time.

“Our teams all worked hard in Hockenheim, and they will have their hands full to repair the damaged cars in time for the first practice session ahead of the next race,” Marquardt said. “There is no time to catch a breather.

“But the whole team is motivated as they can all see that we are heading in the right direction. The overall package is working well and the performance is promising.”

Abt Sportsline team director Hans-Jurgen Abt, who saw only his lead driver Mattias Ekstrom emerge unscathed from the weekend, and lost both Adrien Tambay and Timo Scheider to damage-induced retirements, echoed Marquardt’s sentiments.

“The race at Lausitz is a very special one for us, as we’ve only got three days for preparing the cars,” said Abt. “To top it off, we were the victims of several attacks at Hockenheim and have now got a lot of repair work to do.

“But we’re traveling to the next race as the best Audi team and with Mattias ranking in third place of the standings. We’re going to do everything we can to strike back as quickly as possible.”

Gary Paffett headed Jamie Green to win the opening round of the 2012 DTM at Hockenheim; Mercedes’ British drivers taking a one-two finish for the manufacturer.

From sixth on the grid, Paffett passed the slow-starting Dirk Werner and Mike Rockenfeller on the opening lap, and then made a superbly-judged move on Edoardo Mortara’s Rosberg Audi at the Mercedes Arena shortly afterwards to take third.

An error from polesitter Mattias Ekstrom, who ran wide at Turn 2 during the early stages, allowed Paffett’s HWA team-mate Green to take the lead, and the 2005 champion then also made it past the Abt Audi three corners later with a neat move.

The destiny of the race was resolved at the first of two mandatory tyre stops. Paffett pitted one lap later than his team-mate and rejoined the track alongside Green. The two cars ran side-by-side through Turn 2 and all the way along the main straight before Paffett made use of the inside line at the Spitzkehre to take a lead he would not lose.

Ekstrom dropped back at around 0.3s per lap for the remainder of the race, but was a comfortable third, ahead of HWA’s impressive Christian Vietoris, who climbed from 15th on the grid to fifth by mid-distance and then made it by Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Audi with five laps to go.

Rockenfeller was fifth with Britain’s Andy Priaulx an excellent sixth on his DTM debut for the RBM BMW squad. Priaulx chased down Rockenfeller during the final stages of the race, turning a 4s deficit into one of just 0.6s by the chequered flag.

The race was not so good for the remainder of the BMW drivers. After starting badly Schnitzer driver Werner was spun to the tail of the field by Ralf Schumacher early on. Schumacher also cannoned into Bruno Spengler’s sister car in the same incident while a chain reaction behind involved Adrien Tambay hitting or being hit by three other cars. Both Spengler and Tambay (Abt) retired in the pits after losing their bonnets.

Schumacher dropped back to 13th after receiving a drive-through penalty for his part in the incident, but the HWA driver made good progress later on, passing David Coulthard’s Mucke-run C-coupe for seventh with four laps left. Miguel Molina (Phoenix) and Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg) completed the top 10 while Mortara – given a drive-through penalty for spinning Joey Hand’s BMW – fell to 11th by the flag.

Audi and Mercedes admitted they were surprised by the speed shown by DTM returnee BMW at Hockenheim after Dirk Werner put his M3 third on the grid for the opening round of the season.

BMWs took four of the top 10 grid positions at Hockenheim with Werner the standout performer in third for Schnitzer – six places ahead of his more experienced team-mate Bruno Spengler. Andy Priaulx and defending champion Martin Tomczyk were the others in seventh and 10th for the RBM and RMG squads.

Polesitter Mattias Ekstrom, who had brushed off BMW’s chances of fighting for victories during the winter, was the first to admit he had been wrong.

“I have to say congratulations to BMW,” Ekstrom said. “I was one of the people who said they would not be on the pace at the start, but big respect to them for being competitive.

“Congratulations to Dirk for being so quick, and he could have been on pole. This now raises the bar because if you are not on top form on any weekend, you will be 15th, not first.”

Mercedes Motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug said that BMW’s achievement is good news for the DTM and that he expects there to be an increasingly close level of competition over the course of the season.

“Some guys already started criticising way back, but you played it very well so congratulations. On the timing list now three manufacturers in the top three. Nobody could have dreamed of this. And it’s not a fixed result.

“After a very tough competition it’s a great result for everybody involved. It’s important to thank the [German motorsport authority] DMSB and [DTM organiser] ITR and all our guys who have worked so hard.

“This is tremendous because we could have had a situation with one manufacturer half a second ahead. This is a great yardstick here and it looks like we’ll have a great rest of the year.”

Mattias Ekstrom’s decision to save his tyres at a crucial stage of DTM qualifying was instrumental in the Swede taking pole position at Hockenheim, according to head of Audi Sport Wolfgang Ullrich.

Ekstrom completed only two laps on new rubber during Q3 in his Abt Sportsline-run Audi A5, whereas the other nine drivers in the session did at least three tours.

As a result, his Hankooks were fresher in Q4 than those of Jamie Green, Dirk Werner or Edoardo Mortara; DTM rules stating that drivers may not change tyres between the final two sections of qualifying.

Ullrich said: “He [Ekstrom] was the only one that only used his tyres for two laps in the third qualifying, and in these tight conditions maybe this was the difference. It’s the advantage of the old rabbits, as we say.”

Ekstrom, who sealed the 20th pole of his DTM career and the first of the championship’s new era, said that he was satisfied, rather than happy, to be starting from the front of the grid by over 0.2 seconds.

“It’s because of the massive amount of pressure I put on myself,” he said. “It’s almost not possible to be happy yet because there is still the race ahead and a job to do. So I am satisfied to be on pole, but if I win the race, then I will be happy.

“It wasn’t easy today. I actually thought that [fellow Audi drivers] Mike Rockenfeller and Edo [Mortara] looked very fast and I thought they’d be the first two Audis.

“I’m not quite sure what happened with Rocky [who starts fifth] and Edo didn’t get Q4 quite right [and starts fourth]. But I just tried to do a smooth lap with as few mistakes as possible and this I managed quite OK.”

Mattias Ekstrom claimed pole position for the opening round of the 2012 DTM with a storming lap at Hockenheim, while BMW’s Dirk Werner caused a shock by making it onto the second row.

Ekstrom produced a controlled lap of 1m34.680s in Q4 while the other three drivers that made it into the final part of qualifying all made mistakes that cost them a shot at pole.

HWA Mercedes driver Jamie Green had been fastest in Q3 and therefore was the last to take to the track in Q4, but locked his brakes up at Turn 2, missing the apex. Althogh he recovered some of the lost time in the remainder of the lap, he wound up 0.215 seconds adrift of Abt Audi driver Ekstrom, who claimed his 20th DTM pole.

Schnitzer driver Werner ran wide at the Spitzkehre on his Q4 lap, but was still able to take third on the grid on BMW’s series return as Edoardo Mortara, who ran wide at the Nordkurve, pitted at the end of his flying lap and will start fourth in his Rosberg Audi as a result.

Mike Rockenfeller was the first driver to post a time in Q3, but the Phoenix Audi returnee saw his name tumble down the timesheets as the 10 minutes drew by. His time put him fifth on the grid, ahead of HWA’s Gary Paffett, the RBM BMW of impressive rookie Andy Priaulx and Timo Scheider’s Abt Audi.

Bruno Spengler, who set the pace in Q2, will start ninth in his Schnitzer BMW, ahead of defending champion Martin Tomczyk’s RMG-run example.

Ralf Schumacher was the biggest casualty of Q2, the HWA Mercedes driver being knocked out of the crucial 10th spot by Priaulx after the chequered flag had come out. One place behind him was Abt’s Adrien Tambay, who impressively outqualified his Audi stablemates Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg) and Miguel Molina (Phoenix) on his series debut.

The main moment of drama in Q1 came in the dying seconds when RMG BMW driver Joey Hand, at that point 19th and heading out of the session, leapt up to seventh on his final lap, knocking out Molina. Hand eventually qualified 16th.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m34.680s
 2.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m34.895s  + 0.215s
 3.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m36.276s  + 1.596s
 4.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi
 5.  Mike Rockenfeller   Abt Audi          1m34.264s  Q3
 6.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m34.287s  Q3
 7.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m34.299s  Q3
 8.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m34.389s  Q3
 9.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m34.512s  Q3
10.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m34.819s  Q3
11.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m34.390s  Q2
12.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m34.509s  Q2
13.  Robert Wickens      Persson Mercedes  1m34.538s  Q2
14.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m34.555s  Q2
15.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m34.783s  Q2
16.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m35.140s  Q2
17.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m34.926s  Q1
18.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m34.932s  Q1
19.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m35.104s  Q1
20.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m35.167s  Q1
21.  Susie Wolff         Mucke Mercedes    1m35.776s  Q1
22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m36.012s  Q1

Bruno Spengler gave the DTM establishment a shock by setting the pace in the final free practice session at Hockenheim on Saturday morning for BMW.

The manufacturer, which is returning to the championship this weekend after 20 years away, was off the pace during Friday’s opening session, but had one or more of its M3 DTMs near or at the front throughout the 90 minutes.

Andy Priaulx and Joey Hand both spent time occupying the top spot within the second half of the session, but it was Spengler who wound up fastest; the Schnitzer driver’s 1m33.512s lap the fastest of the weekend so far.

The man Spengler knocked off the top was Rosberg Audi driver Edoardo Mortara, who continued the strong from shown by his team-mate Filipe Albuquerque on Friday. The Italian was just 0.007s slower than Spengler.

Mattias Ekstrom – who had one nervy moment when he outbraked himself and went straight on at the Spitzkehre – and Mike Rockenfeller were third and fourth, and less than a tenth off the pace for the Abt and Phoenix teams respectively, with Albuquerque next up to ensure Audi drivers took four of the top five positions.

Jamie Green was the best Mercedes driver in sixth for HWA, ahead of Timo Scheider (Abt), Miguel Molina (Phoenix), Christian Vietoris (HWA), and Hand, who was the top rookie in his RMG BMW.

Champion Martin Tomczyk had an off-track moment at the Spitzkehre in his RMG BMW on his way to 18th spot while Roberto Merhi, 16th in his Persson Mercedes, went off three times, each without drama or a spin.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car           Time        Gap

 1.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW      1m33.512s

 2.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi       1m33.519s  + 0.007s

 3.  Mattias Ekström     Abt Audi           1m33.546s  + 0.034s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi       1m33.582s  + 0.070s

 5.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi       1m33.771s  + 0.259s

 6.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes       1m33.781s  + 0.269s

 7.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi           1m33.811s  + 0.299s

 8.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi       1m33.870s  + 0.358s

 9.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes       1m33.927s  + 0.415s

10.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW            1m33.928s  + 0.416s

11.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW      1m33.983s  + 0.471s

12.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW            1m34.000s  + 0.488s

13.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes       1m34.122s  + 0.610s

14.  Augusto Farfus      RMG BMW            1m34.201s  + 0.689s

15.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi           1m34.225s  + 0.713s

16.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes   1m34.451s  + 0.939s

17.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes       1m34.465s  + 0.953s

18.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW            1m34.495s  + 0.983s

19.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes     1m34.810s  + 1.298s

20.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes     1m34.919s  + 1.407s

21.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes   1m35.036s  + 1.524s

22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           1m35.381s  + 1.869s

Mercedes drivers Jamie Green and Gary Paffett both expect the new breed of DTM cars to be faster than the old machines from the beginning, despite the championship attempting to limit cornering speeds by cutting the amount of aerodynamic devices used this year.

The first major technical rule changes since the DTM’s revival in 2000 have been introduced this year with cars now using 57 common parts, including the chassis, in a bid to drive down costs and increase driver safety.

A reduction in aerodynamic devices, such as the plethora of winglets that have appeared on the Mercedes and Audi machines over the past decade, has been offset by the allowance of a larger rear wing and wider tyres on the new breed of machinery.

While this has produced the expected increase in mechanical grip, and therefore improved performance in slow corners, HWA team-mates Green and Paffett said that in testing both were able to take more speed into fast bends in the C-coupe than in the old C-class saloon.

“We haven’t really lost any downforce,” Green told AUTOSPORT. “The wing is bigger and the diffuser is really long, plus the wider tyres mean we have more grip at slow speeds.

“It’s quite cool because as a driver you always want a faster car and the C-coupe definitely is a faster car [than the C-class], despite being heavier.”

Paffett, who is one of three drivers partnering Green at HWA, said the speed increase was noticeable inside the car.

“The bigger tyres make the car feel a lot less nervous, and with the increased aero and downforce, the high-speed stuff is faster,” he said. “Coming into the stadium section at Hockenheim in the test a couple of weeks ago, you could really feel it. And when you come to brake for the hairpin [that follows it] you realise you have to brake a little earlier because you’re coming at it from a higher speed.

“I think this makes it drive more like a single-seater and that will probably help the guys who have just joined Mercedes, like Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi, to adapt quickly.”

In the opening free practice session on Friday, Audi’s Filipe Albuquerque was 0.5 seconds faster than Bruno Spengler managed in the corresponding session a year ago, but 0.9s slower than the fastest time in practice one at the 2011 season-ending round at the same circuit, leaving comparisons inconclusive for the moment.

Filipe Albuquerque topped the opening DTM practice session of the year at Hockenheim on Friday afternoon as the championship’s new era got underway.

The Portuguese driver took his brand-new Team Rosberg Audi A5 to the top of the timesheets in 1m34.508s. While this was 0.5 seconds faster than the best time set in the same session 12 months ago in the old-style A4, it was slower than Bruno Spengler’s pole time for the corresponding race.

Audis claimed the top five positions in the order with new Phoenix recruit Mike Rockenfeller just 0.025s off the pace. Albuquerque’s team-mate Edoardo Mortara was third with Timo Scheider’s Abt car and the Phoenix machine of Miguel Molina next up.

Gary Paffett was the best of the Mercedes drivers in sixth for HWA, one spot ahead of Robert Wickens, who headed the rookie drivers in his Mucke Motorsport C-coupe.

BMW’s fastest driver was Briton Andy Priaulx; 10th in his RBM M3, while 2011 champion Martin Tomczyk was two places further back in his RMG-run car. BMWs also occupied the final three places on the timesheets, with RBM’s Augusto Farfus ahead of Schnitzer pair Bruno Spengler and Dirk Werner.

DTM will run a new relay schedule on the Saturday of its Munich spectacle in July, in addition to the existing Sunday head-to-head shootout.

The new relay format consists of a preliminary time trial, on a 614 metre loop within the Munich Olympic stadium, in order to pair drivers from the same manufacturer into teams of two.

Each driver will have their own car, with teams then pitted against each other in a knock-out format – again on the shortened circuit – which involves both drivers doing a stint in a relay format. Tyre changes and pitstops will be prohibited.

Sunday’s head-to-head shootout follows a similar format to last year, with drivers going up against each other on an individual knock-out basis.

The points leader and the subsequent leaders from the Audi, BMW and Mercedes camps will be granted byes into the second round, with the other 12 drivers competing for six further slots. From the quarter finals, drivers will also have to come in for pitstops.

Series organisers have promised changes to the layout in order to reduce the chance of crashes.

The team that took Martin Tomczyk to a shock DTM title with an old-spec Audi in 2011 is confident it can remain a frontrunner this year despite the champion’s defection to BMW.

Team Phoenix is fielding two cars for Mike Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina this year, and because of the switch to new technical regulations for 2012 it is running Audis to the same specification as the lead Abt Sportsline outfit for the first time.

Last year Tomczyk became the first driver to win the championship in an older-spec car, as he and Phoenix surprised Audi and Mercedes’ respective lead teams Abt and HWA. Now that the Nurburgring-based outfit is on a level playing field with the top squads, team boss Ernst Moser believes it can continue to fight at the front even without the reigning champion at the wheel.

“We haven’t had such a high level of suspense in the DTM in years,” said Moser. “Nobody knows where they stand before the first race. As a team, we’re highly motivated but can’t really tell yet whether we’re good enough as a whole.

“We’ve been making every effort to gel with our new driver package. I think that’ll allow us to show what we showed last year too: that we’re among the frontrunners.”

Former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Rockenfeller, who raced for Phoenix from 2007-2010, and took his maiden DTM win with Abt last year, is happy with the way his pre-season has gone since returning to his old team.

“The excitement about the new season coming up is huge,” said Rockenfeller. “Obviously the biggest question mark is where we stand compared with the competition.

“Personally, I’ve been doing fine with the new Audi A5 DTM and am pleased with the tests. I’m eager to see where we stand, and I’d like to win the season opener.”

Michael Schumacher will attend the first DTM race of the season at Hockenheim as part of his new role as mentor of the Mercedes Junior Team.

The seven-time Formula 1 world champion was recently confirmed as a part of the scheme, where he will help look after the interests of DTM racers Christian Vietoris, Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi.

Schumacher said that he was also looking forward to seeing his brother Ralf in action as he enters his fifth season in the series, which kicks off on April 29.

“It’s been a long time since I last went to the DTM,” said Schumacher. “I’m looking forward to an exciting race, and also the first race for the newly formed Mercedes Junior Team.

“Just like I did at the start of my career, these young drivers have the benefit of being supported by Mercedes-Benz as they make the step to top-flight motor racing.

“And of course, I’ll be supporting my brother Ralf. He got his first DTM podium finish a year ago at Hockenheim and, who knows, maybe we’ll have a reason to celebrate this time round as well.”

Audi expects BMW to make a strong start to the DTM season, despite its newcomer status in the series.

BMW is racing in the DTM for the first time since 1992, whereas Mercedes and Audi have been involved in the championship since its rebirth in 2000. And the performance of the M3 DTM from the Munich manufacturer in testing at Hockenheim last week, where it was the slowest of the three new models in action, prompted talk that BMW was behind its rivals.

However, BMW’s recruits from Mercedes (Bruno Spengler) and Audi (reigning champion Martin Tomczyk) have played down the testing performance, and Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich expects the returning marque to be on the pace from the start of the season.

“BMW has been very intensively preparing for the DTM for more than a year,”said Ullrich. “And, just like Audi and Mercedes, [it has] developed a new car according to new regulations which are the same for everyone.

“In view of the touring car know-how that BMW has gathered in many years of work in the field [in championships such as the WTCC], we’re expecting to meet with a very strong rival – and that’s exactly our assessment of BMW right from the first race weekend on.”

Ullrich even suggested that BMW could benefit from coming into the DTM with a fresh approach.

“Naturally, experience gives you a minor advantage,” he added. “On the other hand, a brand new entrant may have the benefit of doing things in a different way, which may prove to give them a minor advantage. It will be very interesting.”

Gary Paffett set the pace during official DTM testing at Hockenheim on Monday.

The HWA Mercedes driver was fastest in his C-Coupe, which is built to the championship’s new-for-2012 regulations in 1m33.284s.

Rahel Frey, who moves up to the Abt Audi squad for the coming season, was just 0.147s slower than Paffett and headed a four-car train of A5s for the manufacturer between second and fifth positions.

Edoardo Mortara put his Team Rosberg car third ahead of Abt’s Timo Scheider and Phoenix Racing’s Miguel Molina.

David Coulthard was seventh in his Mucke Mercedes, one place ahead of fellow Scot Susie Wolff’s Persson vehicle.

Dirk Werner was the best of the handful of BMW drivers present at the circuit in his Schnitzer car in eighth and over 1.2s off the pace. Augusto Farfus (RBM BMW) was a spot further back with Jamie Green (HWA) and defending champion Martin Tomczyk (RMG BMW) completing the runners.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m33.284s
 2.  Rahel Frey            Abt Audi          1m33.431s  + 0.147s
 3.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m33.431s  + 0.427s
 4.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m34.041s  + 0.757s
 5.  Miguel Molina         Phoenix Audi      1m34.060s  + 0.776s
 6.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m34.129s  + 0.845s
 7.  Susie Wolff           Persson Audi      1m34.182s  + 0.898s
 8.  Dirk Werner           Schnitzer BMW     1m34.509s  + 1.225s
 9.  Augusto Farfus        RBM BMW           1m34.573s  + 1.289s
10.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m34.850s  + 1.566s
11.  Martin Tomczyk        RMG BMW           1m34.962s  + 1.678s

Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi will race in the DTM this year after joining Mercedes.

The pair will form two thirds of the Mercedes Junior Team, which will be mentored by seven-times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher. The final member will be Christian Vietoris, who is being promoted to the crack HWA outfit for the coming season after dovetailing his maiden DTM year with his GP2 commitments in 2011.

Canadian driver Wickens, who won last year’s Formula Renault 3.5 title, will partner grand prix winner David Coulthard at Mucke Motorsport.

“The DTM is a fantastic series – you’re competing against top-notch drivers,” he said. “I’m proud that Mercedes-Benz are giving me the chance to show what I am capable of in this environment in the Junior Team. My main aim will be to finish every race and to deliver decent performances.”

F3 Euro Series champion Merhi will race for Persson Motorsport, taking the seat vacated by new HWA driver Vietoris.

Schumacher, who was part of Mercedes’ first junior team in 1990, said: “I remember clearly the early stages of my career, and what I gained from my time in the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team – both on and off the track. It taught me the best way of working with the engineers and helped me build a professional relationship to the media.

“I’m excited to see how Christian, Roberto and Robert develop – they’re certainly going to have a great time. Mercedes-Benz places great importance on developing the next generation of drivers – and there are plenty of examples who demonstrate this.”

The announcement means that there is no place in the DTM line-up for either Maro Engel or Renger van der Zande; the Dutchman having announced last month that he would be racing elsewhere this season.

Miguel Molina is sure his performances can “attract attention” this year after switching from Audi’s Abt Sportsline squad to the Phoenix Racing team that guided Martin Tomczyk to last year’s DTM title.

Molina, 23, took a pair of pole positions last year in an old-spec A4 run by Abt, and became the first Spaniard to finish on a DTM podium at the Hockenheim season-opener.

He said that the buoyant atmosphere within the Phoenix squad left him in no doubt that he can improve his level of consistency and finish far higher than the 11th place he managed in last year’s championship.

“It’s a compact squad that wants to continue at the same level as last year, and you can feel that the team is giving everything for this – from my engineer and team director Ernst Moser through to every single team member,” Molina said. “That’s a good feeling and gives me a lot of confidence.

“We’ve only been working together since this winter but we’ve already got a pleasant and productive atmosphere. I think we’ve put all the ingredients together to attract attention this year.”

Molina’s team-mate at the two-car squad will be Mike Rockenfeller, who also partnered him at Abt last year.

Mercedes has confirmed that Jamie Green will remain in its line-up for the 2012 DTM season.

The British driver has raced for the Stuttgart marque since 2005, winning seven races during that time. Last year he returned to the top-line HWA squad after spending two years in older machinery with Persson Motorsport.

Green won the season finale at Hockenheim last October, and he is looking forward to building on that momentum as he stays with HWA for 2012.

“DTM enters a new era in 2012, new cars and technical rules promise to make it even more exciting than before,” said Green, who finished fifth in the standings last year.

“I’m looking forward to bringing my experience from seven DTM seasons to bear on the development and set-up of our new Mercedes C-coupe.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug added: “Jamie is without doubt one of the finest and fastest drivers contesting the DTM.

“We look forward to a new season with Jamie, who like a true racer, has been polishing up on his German skills, so that they are now almost as perfect as his drive in Hockenheim.”

Green joins Gary Paffett, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher and Susie Wolff as drivers confirmed for Mercedes for this year.

Audi will expand to run eight cars in the DTM this year, with Adrien Tambay getting a newly opened spot at Team Abt.

The team had originally been set to run three cars for Mattias Ekstrom, Timo Scheider and Rahel Frey – meaning that Audi was set to field a seven-car entry.

Audi’s head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich said that the opportunity had since arisen to field an extra car under the Abt banner – although he admitted plans might not come together in time for the season-opening round at Hockenheim.

“As we had to develop an extremely challenging hybrid car – the Audi R18 e-tron quattro – for the Le Mans 24 Hours and concurrently a completely new DTM vehicle we were initially planning for seven cars in 2012,” Ullrich explained.

“I’m happy that the opportunity to enter eight cars has now materialized. I’m convinced that in view of the DTM’s high level it’ll be advantageous to compete with the maximum number of possible cars.

“This is a major logistical feat and puts maximum demands on the entire squad. Our aim is to field the eighth car as early as possible.

“We were poised for fielding eight vehicles in the DTM as early as last year and are assuming that no later than in 2013 all manufacturers will be competing with at least eight cars.”

Tambay, 21, has a background in single seaters, although he did contest two races in an Audi R8 in the FIA GT3 championship last year. He also scored one victory and five podiums on his way to finishing fourth in Auto GP.

Ullrich said Tambay had proved a good fit for Audi’s present and future direction.

“We took several young drivers on board in recent years, some of whom joined us from Volkswagen’s talent incubator in Formula 3,” he explained.

“I feel that today Audi has a very good base in terms of its driver line-up, which also means that the brand is oriented toward the future. This also applies to Adrien, who convinced us in tests and is a good fit for the Audi family.”

BMW has unveiled the livery that Bruno Spengler will use in the DTM this year.

The Canadian, who moved across to the Munich manufacturer during the winter after seven years with rival Mercedes, will drive a matte black M3 DTM, reminiscent of the car unveiled publicly last summer, and backed by BMW Bank.

Spengler is driving for the Schnitzer team this year, alongside GT convert Dirk Werner.

As previously announced, reigning champion Martin Tomczyk and Joey Hand will drive for Team RMG while Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus will be in RBM-run M3s.

Susie Wolff will spend a seventh straight year in the DTM this season after confirming she will stay with Mercedes.

The 29-year-old Briton will remain with Persson Motorsport and will, for the first time in her DTM career, drive current-spec machinery thanks to the series’ switch to an all-new set of technical regulations.

Wolff, who competed as Susie Stoddart before her marriage to Williams F1 shareholder Toto Wolff last October, believes the new rules will allow a more even playing field this year.

“Since making my DTM debut in 2006, I have always felt at home in the Mercedes-Benz family, so I am delighted that the relationship continues into 2012,” she said.

“I’m really motivated and I have been working hard all winter to prepare myself physically and mentally for what is bound to be a very close and competitive season; with the introduction of new cars and regulations, the playing field is going to be more level for all of the drivers.

“We now have three premium manufacturers lined up against each other – Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz – which promises to make the battle all the more intriguing and exciting.”

Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug said that Wolff, whose best DTM season came in 2010, when she finished 13th in the points, said that resigning her was an easy decision.

“Susie has set her sights very high for 2012 and cannot wait to get out there and achieve good results,” he said. “I have often admired her speed in races, and there is not a single DTM driver or DTM champion around who has not had to contend with Susie’s fighting spirit on the racetrack.

“Provided she can secure a good position on the grid in our new-generation DTM C-Class Coupe, and get off the line well, then Susie will be even more of a force to be reckoned with in 2012.”

BMW believes it is in good shape for its return to the DTM, following the official unveiling of its definitive M3 ahead of the 2012 season.

All three manufacturers in the German series (BMW, Audi, Mercedes) had to meet a homologation deadline of March 1 for their cars, with the development of several parts now set for the season.

BMW unveiled its homologated car at the Geneva Motor Show, with ex-Mercedes racer Bruno Spengler and motorsport boss Jens Marquardt taking the covers off.

Marquardt said: “After all the hard work put in by BMW Motorsport and our teams over the past few weeks and months, I am confident that the BMW M3 DTM will provide us with an excellent basis for our comeback season.

“The countdown to BMW’s first race in the DTM has been on since 1992 [when the manufacturer last raced in the series]. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we will go about it in our usual highly-motivated manner.”

Marquardt added that BMW had worked closely with its performance road car M division on developing the car.

“March 1 was a milestone for all the manufacturers involved,” he said. “The intensive development stage drew to a close with the homologation of the BMW M3 DTM by the DMSB [German motorsport authority], and large parts of the design can no longer be changed.

“We were able to take advantage of the resources and experience of BMW M. The results of this cooperation speak for themselves.

“We will be doing everything in our power to ensure making positive headlines with the letter M in the 2012 DTM, and that we present BMW M with a gift or two to mark the 40th anniversary of its existence.”

Renger van der Zande has revealed that he will not stay in the DTM with Mercedes this season.

The Dutchman, who made his debut in the series last year driving an older-spec C-class, had hoped to be retained for a second season, but Mercedes has told him that he will not form part of its line-up.

“It’s the way things are in car racing right now,” said van der Zande, who added that he believed he was the preferred choice of Mercedes’ sporting arm, but lost out because the manufacturer wants to sign a North American driver for commercial reasons.

“In Formula 1, too, the majority of seats have been bought. That means that those of us who mainly rely on talent and track record will have to jostle for a good seat.

“I’m not that bothered myself, I see it as a fact of life. I entered the international arena at the wrong time, and unfortunately, I don’t have a ‘rich uncle’ to offer.”

The 26-year-old added that he is pursuing drives in other categories for 2012, with the World Endurance Championship and Porsche Supercup at the top of his list.

“I hope to be able to announce my definitive plans for 2012 within a matter of weeks,” he said. “I expect to race more than ever in the year ahead, particularly because I am now working to broaden my horizons as an all-rounder.”

AUTOSPORT understands that Canadian Robert Wickens, the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion, has been in talks with Mercedes over the winter.

Andy Priaulx says he is fired up about the challenge of making his DTM debut with BMW this year.

The three-time WTCC champion has joined the German manufacturer’s assault on the DTM in its return to the series following an absence of nearly 20 years.

Priaulx is one of the six drivers running a BMW this year.

The Briton will not only be reunited with his BMW Team RBM, but he will continue to be backed by Crowne Plaza Hotels for the sixth year.

“New challenges are always exciting, but at the same time it is nice to have some familiar faces around,” said Priaulx.

“Augusto will be my team-mate. Like me, he has been part of the BMW family for many years, and drove alongside me in RBM in 2010. Then add to that Crowne Plaza, who have been long, loyal supporters of me and BMW. It is a bit like going up a class at school, but still having all your best mates with you.

“From the moment I got into the car I knew it was something special. Driving it brings a smile to my face and I can’t wait now for the competition to begin.”

Audi has revealed the first image of its definitive A5 DTM car for the 2012 season.

The German series is running to new technical regulations for this season, with Audi and Mercedes producing successors to the A4 and C-class respectively, while BMW returns to the championship with its M3.

All three manufacturers have been testing in secret in recent weeks as they worked to meet a deadline of March 1 to homologate their cars for the upcoming season. Audi has now given a sneak peak of its car in race ready form, although the A5 remains in a camouflage livery to prevent too much detail being obvious to its rivals.

Head of Audi Sport Wolfgang Ullrich said: “More than ever before, even the minutest detail will count this year in the DTM.

“Obviously, you want to keep the things you’ve worked out over the past few months under wraps for as long as possible.”

Filipe Albuquerque, who will race the A5 for Team Rosberg this year, believes the new car is a big step forward from its predecessor.

“I expected quite a bit of it, but I wouldn’t have thought that the step would be so big,” said the Portuguese driver.

“Particularly in fast turns, the new A5 handles like a formula car. I think I’d have to readjust quite a bit if I switched back to the old A4.”

The DTM season kicks off at Hockenheim on April 29.

David Coulthard will spend a third year in the DTM with Mercedes this year.

The 13-time grand prix winner is staying with Mucke Motorsport, but will, for the first time in his DTM career, have a current-spec car as the series moves into a new set of technical regulations aimed at increasing driver safety and cutting costs.

Coulthard, who finished 16th in last year’s championship, has started 21 DTM races and believes that the experience he can now fall back on will help him move up the order this year.

“In 2012, the DTM enters a new era. New cars, new technical regulations and a third manufacturer [BMW] promise to make the championship more exciting than ever before. That’s why I’m looking forward even more to my third year with Mercedes-Benz in this highly competitive championship,” Coulthard said.

“My first impressions of our DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupe are very positive – especially the paddle shift on the steering wheel, which I know very well from my time in Formula 1.

“In the past two years, I’ve had to learn a lot about the engineering, the driving technique and about DTM racing in general. I know my team well now and, after 15 years as a member of the Mercedes-Benz family, I feel really at home. In 2012, I want to continue my progress and post some respectable results.”

Coulthard’s team-mate has yet to be announced. Last year he was partnered by German Maro Engel.

Oliver Jarvis has been dropped from Audi’s DTM line-up for the coming season as the Abt Sportsline team has reduced its effort from five cars to three.

The former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner, who was named in the manufacturer’s Le Mans 24 Hours line-up recently, has spent the last four years in the German-based tin-top series with both the Abt and Phoenix Racing squads.

Audi’s slimmed-down line-up of seven cars features 2011 rookie Rahel Frey moving from Phoenix to Abt to partner two-time champions Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider.

Phoenix has a totally new line-up following Frey’s move to Abt and Martin Tomczyk’s defection to BMW during the winter. Mike Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina, who both drove for Abt last year, will race the A5 DTMs for Ernst Moser’s squad.

The only Audi outfit with an unchanged line-up is Team Rosberg, which has retained 2011′s star rookie Edoardo Mortara and Filipe Albuquerque.

“That’s why continuity with the teams and drivers was important to us,” said head of Audi motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich.

“Mattias (Ekstrom) and Timo know how to win the DTM and each of them is drawing on experience from more than 100 DTM races. Mike won his first DTM race in 2011, Filipe, Edoardo and Miguel all mounted the podium for the first time last year.

“And I also believe that Rahel is able to cause some surprises in her second DTM season. During the winter tests she showed that she has a lot of potential.”

The DTM season kicks off at Hockenheim on April 29.

Mattias Ekstrom believes that the DTM’s new tyre regulations will pose a bigger challenge to drivers this year than any of the other rule changes coming into force.

Under all-new technical regulations for this year, all DTM cars will use larger wheels and wider tyres than the previous generation of machinery.

This, coupled with reduced aerodynamics, means that the balance of grip generated by each car will be more mechanical than aerodynamic. And Audi ace Ekstrom says the change of driving style this requires in the new A5 DTM has taken time to adapt to.

“The car is definitely a bit different to drive than the A4,” said the two-time DTM champion. “The biggest difference is made by the new Hankook tyre which is a bit wider – that changes the driving style to some extent.

“We’ve also got the gearshift on the steering wheel now [as opposed to a stick]. That also makes a bit of a difference, although there are many things you can’t judge at the moment because we haven’t driven the final version yet.”

Ekstrom, who has been heavily involved in the A5′s test programme, said that the car was at the point in its development where only small tweaks will be needed to it ahead of the March 1 homologation deadline.

“But principally speaking there’s only fine-tuning work left at this stage. The key decisions were made a long time ago,” he added.

“Every manufacturer will now try and guard their little secrets up to the last moment. After March 1 the cards will be revealed a little more – also during the track tests.”

Bruno Spengler believes BMW is in excellent shape ahead of the new DTM season after making “another step forward,” during three days of testing at Estoril in Portugal.

Spengler, who switched from Mercedes to BMW during the winter, was one of six drivers on hand for the manufacturer, who completed more than 2,500 miles of running this week.

The Canadian now thinks BMW can be quietly confident about its hopes of running competitively from the outset.

“I think we made another step forward with this test,” Spengler said.

“We managed to try out many things and learned a lot. That’s exactly what you want during a test at this stage of the season’s preparations.”

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said that it was crucial that the current rate of development was maintained for the next month, with the DTM’s homologation deadline on March 1 looming.

“Every test is very important for us, particularly in the current phase, as we are fast approaching the homologation deadline,” Marquardt added. “After this point, much of the development work on the car is subject to a freeze.

“Furthermore, improving the car’s performance is another central issue. We were once again able to find a lot of important things in this area. All in all, we enjoyed another three positive days of testing in Estoril.”

Reigning champion Martin Tomczyk was testing for the first time since the confirmation that he would race for the new RMG squad this year. Test driver Marco Wittmann drove the other RMG car as Joey Hand was on ALMS testing duties at Sebring.

Spengler’s Schnitzer team-mate Dirk Werner and RBM drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus were also on-track.

Marco Wittmann has joined BMW as the reserve driver for its DTM programme.

The 22-year-old German, who finished second in both the F3 Euro Series and the FIA International F3 Trophy last year, will provide support to the six drivers and test the new M3 DTM at various points during the year.

“I have always had a link to BMW since the great and informative time I spent in Formula BMW,” said Wittmann, who tested a DTM machine for the manufacturer at Monteblanco last December.

“As such, I am happy to be able to race for BMW in 2012 and to gain DTM experience as a test driver. I am certain I will learn a lot in this new environment.”

As well as his DTM role, Wittmann will join a number of customer BMW GT squads during the year. This programme will include a drive at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in a Z4 GT3 and will could also involve outings in the GT1 World Championship and the Blancpain Endurance Series.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said: “In Marco Wittmann we welcome a fast and talented driver for our GT programme into our ranks. He will contest numerous races within the framework of our customer racing programme.

“Marco made a very good impression at his DTM test. This is why he will support the six regular DTM drivers in 2012 as the test driver, therefore giving him a chance to gain more valuable experience.

“It is certainly no coincidence that Marco has come through our own junior promotion programme. Having graduated from Formula BMW he forged ahead with his motorsport career. I am delighted he is now returning to us.”

Martin Tomczyk has been placed with BMW’s new RMG squad for his DTM title defence this year.

The German manufacturer announced on Friday which teams its six drivers will race for in the coming season, with RMG, which was only formed last summer, joining established touring car squads Schnitzer and RBM in running a pair of M3s.

Tomczyk, who joined BMW from Audi during the winter, will be partnered at RMG by American Joey Hand, while BMW’s other big-name signing, Bruno Spengler, will drive for Schnitzer with Dirk Werner.

Andy Priaulx’s M3 will be run by RBM, the team for which he won his three world and one European titles. Augsto Farfus, also an RBM driver in the WTCC, will be his team-mate.

“In allocating our six DTM drivers to the three teams we have completed another stage of our planning for the 2012 season,” said BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt.

“The test programme so far has primarily focused on evaluating control parts, performing basic set-up work on our BMW M3 DTM, and familiarising ourselves with the DTM processes, which are new to us all. However, we now enter the crucial phase ahead of the start of the season in which the focus switches to performance.

“In order for us to be able to push ourselves to the limit and exploit the full potential of the car, it is essential that the co-operation between the driver, his race engineer, and the entire team is perfect. To find the ideal driver/team combinations, every one of our six drivers has driven for each of the teams.

“After many discussions with all those involved, we are confident we have found the optimal line-ups, which will allow us to get the best out of the individual strengths of the drivers and teams. The drivers and teams can now continue to grow together and prepare for the season, which begins in just three months.”

BMW has unveiled the first of the liveries it will run during its DTM campaign this year.

One of the six M3 DTMs will run in the green and blue colours of its backer Castrol EDGE, rather than the traditional BMW corporate livery of the past 20 years.

DTM champion Martin Tomczyk and long-time Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler have joined BMW for the coming season to partner long-time factory drivers Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus, Joey Hand and Dirk Muller, all of whom are switching over from GT racing.

Three teams; Schnitzer, RBM and RMG, will field the cars.

The DTM kicks off at Hockenheim at the end of April.

BMW has completed its DTM line-up by confirming that Dirk Werner will race the sixth of its new M3 machines this year.

The 30-year-old German, has tested the car extensively since the summer and has been named alongside series champion Martin Tomczyk, Bruno Spengler, Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus and Joey Hand.

“As the sixth driver, Dirk Werner is the ideal way to complete our driving line-up,” said BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt. “Dirk convinced us he was the right man during the tests.

“The result of our efforts over the past few months is a line-up that we believe will achieve great things in the DTM. It boasts speed, experience and a host of international titles. I am pleased that our line-up has such an international feel to it. Two drivers from North America, a South American, a Brit, and two German drivers: our team also offers fans a lot of variety.”

Werner has a Porsche Carrera Cup Germany title to his name plus victories in the Supercup. Since becoming a BMW driver he has won two GT championships in Grand-Am and finished on the podium at the Spa 24 Hours.

Last year he finished third in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series along with his co-driver Bill Auberlen.

Joey Hand will race in the DTM for BMW next year, following a successful test at Monteblanco last month.

The 32-year-old American has been a factory driver for the German manufacturer since 2009 and has achieved huge success this year, winning both the Daytona 24 Hours in a BMW-engined Riley and then taking the GTE crown in the American Le Mans Series in an M3 GT.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said: “Joey has been a member of the BMW family for many years, and we are extremely pleased that he will now form part of our DTM project.

“His past successes have impressively underscored his skills set, and during the test in Monteblanco with the BMW M3 DTM he immediately proved to be very fast.

“We are convinced the addition of Joey to our line-up will substantially strengthen our project. In addition, his character fits into our team perfectly.”

Hand’s signing means five of BMW’s six seats have now been taken, with existing factory GT drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus having been joined by reigning DTM champion Martin Tomczyk, and long-time Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler.

Hand, who has not raced regularly in Europe since his karting days, said: “I am really looking forward to my new challenge in the DTM, and thank BMW sincerely for the company’s confidence in me.

“I immediately enjoyed the BMW M3 DTM. Its downforce and carbon brakes are extremely impressive. I know some of the team members from the past, and was able to acquaint myself with the others in Monteblanco. Now I am looking forward to our close teamwork in future!”

To find out how the DTM’s ties with US motorsport could strengthen by 2014, Read this week’s AUTOSPORT digital magazine.

DTM champion Martin Tomczyk feels there is no reason why BMW cannot be competitive from the outset in 2012 after his first test in the M3 at Monteblanco.

The former Audi driver joined team-mates Andy Priaulx and Bruno Spengler, plus single-seater men Romain Grosjean and Marco Wittmann, for three days of running at the Spanish track. It was Tomczyk’s first chance to try the car with which he will defend his title.

“I am very positive about this test,” said Tomczyk, who turned 30 during the test. “Obviously this is a new situation for me: a new manufacturer, a new car, and a new team. You have to find your feet a bit first, but that took no time at all.

“You can see that we are all working towards the same goal, namely to be competitive in the first race. The strategy at the tests is working very well. Although this three day test was actually quite short, we were able to gain a lot of experience and we could use the knowledge gained immediately.

“If we continue like this, I have no doubt that the car really will be competitive by the first race. I personally had great fun getting to know both the BMW M3 DTM and the team – and celebrating my birthday here. It is great to learn something new. And it is even better when that new thing also works superbly.”

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt was pleased with how well Tomczyk had settled in.

“We are very happy with this test,” he said. “As expected, Martin had no problem adapting to the car and finding his feet in the team. This meant he was very quickly able to concentrate on the actual test programme. Overall, we can draw a positive conclusion from these three days.”

Former F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen was delighted after completing his test at the wheel of Mercedes’s new DTM car in Spain.

The Finn, who had last raced at the Zhuhai ILMC event in November, got behind the wheel of the C-Class that will be used by the German car maker during the 2012 season.

Hakkinen, the 1998 and 1999 world champion, completed 109 laps of the Monteblanco circuit for a total of 365 km.

He said he felt “fit and motivated” after the test.

“First of all I am very pleased, that I was given the opportunity to test the new DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupe in Monteblanco,” said Hakkinen. “It was a great feeling to be working with the HWA Team and Gerhard Ungar again.

“I felt very good at the test. The car has changed significantly in comparison to my DTM experience from 2007. The wider tyres have more grip and the steering wheel mounted shift paddles mean that, with your hands on the wheel all the time, you can focus 100 per cent on getting the perfect line.

“I’m already familiar with the system from Formula 1 and it felt very natural. I am pleased that I was able to contribute to the development of the new DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupe for Mercedes-Benz and HWA.

“I feel fit and motivated, and I climbed out of the car today with a big smile on my face.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug added: “Once a racer, always a racer. Mika felt completely at home in the C-Coupe and did a lot of laps at a good level. The test helped us and him.”

Bruno Spengler believes honing pitstops and race strategies quickly will be crucial to BMW’s chances of success in its return DTM campaign in 2012.

The German manufacturer is returning to the series after 20 years away next year, with Spengler, who finished third in the 2011 standings, switching over from Mercedes.

Speaking for the first time publicly as a BMW driver, Spengler said that perfecting pitstops, which take between two and four seconds in the DTM as opposed to the much longer stationary times in the GT contests that BMW is used to, would be a key element during the season.

“As a racing driver and as a team you always want to win races as soon as possible. With that in mind, our goal is to challenge at the front of the field, finish on the podium, and start winning races as quickly as possible,” Spengler said.

“Before we can even start thinking about that, however, we must first concentrate on the preparations and work our way through the winter programme.

The team still has little experience when it comes to pitstops and race strategies. These are all new things that play an important role. For that reason, we must first be well-prepared before we can set ourselves the goal of winning the championship.”

Spengler said he was excited about the arrival of DTM champion Martin Tomczyk as a fellow BMW driver for 2012, and that he expects to continue his friendly rivalry with the German next year.

“He has a wealth of experience and it is good to have him on our side. It does not make a huge difference to me, however. We will all be working together to push the team forward,” the Canadian added.

“You have to have a certain rivalry [with your team-mates], as that spurs you on. You must always try to optimise the car and the performance. To do this, everyone pushes themselves to the limit and finds new areas, in which they can improve. That is how you move forward, and move the team forward.

“You obviously apply pressure, battle and drive hard against each other, but you don’t drive into one another. You have to find a good mixture of rivalry and team play.”

Mika Hakkinen will drive Mercedes’ new C-Coupe at this week’s DTM test at Monteblanco.

The 1998 and ’99 Formula 1 world champion made his racing comeback in a Mercedes SLS GT3 car at the Zhuhai ILMC event last month, and will on Tuesday sample a DTM car for the first time since he quit the series at the end of 2007.

“After having seen the regulations for 2012 I just had to find out what’s different between the ‘old’ DTM AMG Mercedes C-Class and the new DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupe,” said Hakkinen, 43.

“Thanks a lot to Norbert Haug and HWA’s Gerhard Ungar for offering me the chance of testing the new DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupe. Having the opportunity to drive a new Mercedes always represents a major pleasure for me.”

Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug said that the test was not a precursor to a full-time comeback in the series for Hakkinen.

“He has been a member of the Mercedes-Benz family since 1995 and secured two Formula 1 World Championship titles with McLaren and us to afterwards successfully compete in DTM, with Mercedes-Benz,” Haug said.

“This test was a desire of both Mika and us and you shouldn’t draw any further conclusions from the fact that he is going to test the car.”

Mercedes confirmed that Gary Paffett, Jamie Green and Christian Vietoris will also drive at the test.

You would be hard pressed to find any 19-year-olds who have packed more peaks and troughs into their life than the winner of the 2011 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award.

Now Sheffield’s Oliver Rowland is the talk of the British motorsport scene, thanks to a blistering run of late-season form that provided him with the runner-up spot in the Formula Renault UK Championship, title victory in the Formula Renault Finals Series – and culminated in his being crowned our 23rd Award winner.

Rowland, whose father was a motorcycle racer and whose grandfather rallied, was the golden boy of British karting, winning not just in the UK but on the World Cup scene.

He enjoyed much of his success with the Zip Kart operation of the late Martin Hines, and was signed by the mighty McLaren to its Driver Development programme from 2007-2010.

There was tragedy in 2010 when Dave Rowland, Oliver’s father, suddenly died. Hines took Rowland under his wing, becoming like a father figure. He sorted out many of the young starlet’s personal affairs and installed him at his Grand Prix Racewear shop at Silverstone, with Rowland also playing an active part in the operation of the Zip Kart Cadet team.

At the same time, Rowland was given a berth by the Racing Steps Foundation, which funded his graduation to cars with CRS Racing in the 2010 Formula Renault Winter Cup. He won a race, thanks to a correct tyre choice in damp conditions.

The patronage of RSF continued in 2011, when Rowland joined Fortec Motorsport for FRUK. Typically for a rookie, he took time to learn the art of qualifying, but soon marked himself out as the series’ most-ambitious overtaker.

Further catastrophe hit Rowland particularly hard when Hines died this summer. But he bounced back and, once he started qualifying on pole, so the crowds lost their best hope for overtaking and entertainment… He ended up winning four of the last six FRUK races, plus four of the six Finals Series events.

Rowland looks set to continue under the RSF banner in 2012, for which he looks most likely to take his remarkable talent and spectacular driving to the Formula Renault Eurocup.

Formula Renault UK runner-up Oliver Rowland has won a Formula 1 test with McLaren after being named as the 23rd winner of the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award.

Rowland, who also gets £100,000, full membership of the BRDC, a TW Steel watch, Puma racewear for a year, was revealed as the winner at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London on Sunday night.

The 19-year-old Briton was presented with the Award by Derek Warwick, chairman of the Award judges, McLaren F1 team principal Martin Whitmarsh, and AUTOSPORT publishing director Peter Higham.

“I don’t know what to say,” Rowland explained. “It’s been a difficult year for me. I lost someone very close to me in [karting guru] Martin Hines, who passed away this year. He’s helped me for six or seven years.

“I’ve had lots to learn this year in my first year of Formula Renault. I have learned a lot and now I’m here. I just can’t believe it.”

Rowland beat Formula Renault UK champion Alex Lynn, German F3 Cup race-winner Tom Blomqvist, British Formula Ford champion Scott Malvern, ADAC Formel Master front-runner Emil Bernstorff and Formula Renault BARC champion Dino Zamparelli to the prize after a number of tests, including driving a Formula 2 machine, a HWA DTM Mercedes and a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 at Silverstone last month.

Former recipients of the award include 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button, former grand prix winner David Coulthard and IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti.

1996 Formula 1 world champion and ex-British Racing Drivers’ Club president Damon Hill has been presented with a Gregor Grant Award at tonight’s AUTOSPORT Awards.

After an eight-year career in the sport’s highest category, Hill was appointed president of the BRDC in 2006 and was instrumental in securing a long-term deal for Silverstone to host Formula 1, before announcing his decision to step down in August this year.

Hill received his award from Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who also designed the Williams FW18 in which Hill won his drivers’ crown.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this, I’m very proud,” Hill said. “My work with Silverstone has been very satisfying, and I’m really glad it came to fruition. To lose the grand prix, the lynchpin of the whole industry, would have been tragic. Now the world can see this is the place to come for motorsport, and Britain’s asset in motorsport is celebrated every year.

“I’m going through another phase of motorsport now, which is standing on touchline and watching [son] Josh develop, which is great.”

Like his father Graham, a double F1 champion, Damon was a relatively late starter, making his debut in single seaters in 1983.

He gradually found his feet and in 1986 graduated into Formula 3, before switching to Formula 3000 two years later.

Hill made his F1 debut with Brabham in 1992, and in 1993 earned a call up the main Williams squad as a replacement for Nigel Mansell. His first win came that year in Hungary, which he followed up with wins in Belgium and Italy to finish third in the championship.

When Alain Prost retired Hill found himself partnered at Williams by Ayrton Senna, a partnership which ended tragically when Senna was killed in the third race of the year at Imola. Hill became team leader and carried the fight to Michael Schumacher, losing the title in acrimonious circumstances when Schumacher drove him off the road in the Adelaide finale.

Hill struggled under the billing of favourite for the 1995 title and finished a distant second to Schumacher. He started 1996 in superb fashion however, winning four of the opening five races – momentum he maintained through to the end of the season on the way to a maiden F1 crown.

1997 heralded a move to the Arrows team, for which he would take a podium at Hungary. He moved to Jordan one year later and scored one win in an attritional race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Hill retired from the sport in 1999, but maintained close personal ties and in 2006 was elected as president of the BRDC as Sir Jackie Stewart’s successor.

He played an integral role in securing a 17-year contract for Silverstone to hold F1 grands prix, before standing down from his position on 25 August 2011.

The Red Bull RB7 has been named as Racing Car of the Year at the 2011 AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The machine, which took Sebastian Vettel to the Formula 1 world title and Mark Webber to third place in the championship, overcame competition from the rival McLaren MP4-26, the Audi R18 and Peugeot 908 sportscars, the new generation Dallara GP2/11 and the World Touring Car Championship-dominating Chevrolet Cruze to take the prize.

It is the second year in a row that a Red Bull has won the award, the RB6 having taken it in 2010.

Chief technical officer Adrian Newey collected the award from Martin Brundle, and was joined on stage by chief designer Rob Marshall, head of race engineering Ian Morgan and chief engineer Mark Ellis.

Newey said: “Last year we produced a good car but made it very difficult for ourselves. This year out of the blocks from the start, the car was competitive right away and we just managed to keep it there, and that’s a credit to everyone.

“Some of the races have been very close and it’s a tribute to the team and drivers that we’ve stayed there.”

As the successor to the world title-winning RB6 of 2010, the RB7 became a reality thanks to the work of Marshall and head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou.

Even from pre-season testing, the Red Bull’s grip levels looked sensational, despite other teams taking much of the glory on the timesheets. And so it proved at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix when Vettel won from pole position.

In total, the RB7 won 12 of the 19 races held in 2011, set a new all-time record for the number of pole positions in a single season with 18, and also set 10 fastest laps as Vettel racked up his second world championship on the bounce and Webber claimed third in the points standings.

Dan Wheldon was honoured at this year’s AUTOSPORT Awards as he received a posthumous Gregor Grant Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements in motorsport.

Wheldon, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and the 2005 IndyCar Series champion, died on Sunday 16 October as a result of injuries sustained in a crash at the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas. He was 33.

The award, which was to be given to Wheldon following his second Indianapolis 500 victory, was collected by Wheldon’s father Clive and his great friend and IndyCar rival Dario Franchitti.

“From my heart I’d like to say a special thank you to our friends, family and to everyone for what they have done for our family in the last two weeks,” Clive said.

“My memories of Dan in his early days, when we travelled round the country and I was chef, mechanic, are ones I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

“The best racing memory for me has to be at Indianapolis this year,” Franchitti said. “A lot of people in that field should have and could have, but Dan in that little team turned up and kicked our ass basically.

“When he came down to do the parade lap I thought I was going to do something funny to him, but I could just see the pure emotion on his face and how much it meant to him. That pure joy, in such difficult circumstances, I will always remember. It was a great day, and showed everyone what an amazing driver he was.”

A British karting and 1995 FIA World Cup champion, Wheldon was one of a golden crop of British drivers to graduate from karting to single seaters in the 1990s.

He battled for the Formula Vauxhall title in 1996, won races in his rookie season in Formula Ford in 1997 and one year later was pipped to the Formula Ford crown by Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 world champion.

In 1999 Wheldon set his sights on racing in the US and made the move to a country in which he would enjoy his greatest successes.

The claimed the US Formula Ford title at the first attempt in 2000, and in straight seasons rose up the CART ladder by finishing second in the Toyota Atlantic series and then as champion in Indy Lights.

It was in the IndyCar Series that his chance came. After late outings in 2000, he was called to replace an injured Franchitti at Andretti Green Racing. When Franchitti returned, Wheldon was retained due to team boss Michael Andretti standing down.

His first victory came in 2004 at Motegi, and one year later he claimed the IndyCar title and won the Indianapolis 500 – the first Briton to win the race since Graham Hill.

Wheldon only narrowly lost out on defending his title in 2006, losing on a countback of wins, while he finished fourth in the following two seasons.

For 2009 and 2010 he joined the smaller Panther Racing team, but with no sponsorship forthcoming – and despite some good results – he was dropped for 2011. He decided to focus on the Indianapolis 500 this year, and on May 29 he took an emotional second win for Bryan Herta Autosport.

He was chosen to race for a lucrative prize in the IndyCar finale at Las Vegas, but tragedy struck.

The Mini WRC has been named Rally Car of the Year at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The car, which made its World Rally Championship debut this year, beat off competition from the Citroen DS3 WRC, Ford Fiesta WRC, Skoda Fabia S2000, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and Subaru Impreza WRX to win the award.

It is the first time since 2007 that a manufacturer other than Citroen has won the prize.

David Richards, whose Prodrive concern runs the Mini operation, accepted the award from two-time World Rally champion Carlos Sainz.

“It’s been a great start, seeing the Mini name up at the front again after almost 50 years,” he said. “It’s something very special. It’s Monte Carlo in only seven weeks’ time though, so we’re hard at work getting preparations underway for that.”

The Mini name had been an irrelevance at world level since the mid 1960s, a golden period for the original version of the car that included a European Rally Championship for Rauno Aaltonen in 1965 and various Monte Carlo, Acropolis and 1000 Lakes successes.

That changed in 2010 when Prodrive, the organisation that took Subaru to three drivers’ and three manufacturers’ world titles, announced that it would run a pair of cars in the WRC on a full-time basis from 2012, and in a partial campaign this year.

The John Cooper Works WRC, to give the car its full name, is based on the Mini Countryman road car and powered by a BMW 1.6-litre turbocharged engine.

It made its WRC debut in Italy this year with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke behind the wheel. Sordo surprised many by finishing sixth on that event, and then impressively put the car on the podium in third place in Germany on what was only the car’s third appearance.

Even better was to come, with Sordo leading for large chunks of the following event in France, and only missing out on victory to Sebastien Ogier’s Citroen by 6.3 seconds.

Despite its status as a development entry in 2011, which left it ineligible to score points in the manufacturers’ championship, Sordo and Meeke made it to eighth and 11th in the drivers’ points. This was despite the team taking part in less than half the season.

Eight-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb has won Rally Driver of the Year at the 2011 AUTOSPORT Awards.

It is the sixth time he has been voted the season’s top rally driver by AUTOSPORT readers.

Citroen team manager Sven Smeets collected the award on Loeb’s behalf from 1990 and 1992 WRC champion Carlos Sainz.

“At the start of the season it looked uncertain, even bad at the very start,” Smeets said. “But we were very good in the middle and led by 40 points at one stage. We had a few mistakes, but it was a very good year.”

Loeb took five wins and nine podiums during his 2011 campaign, but straight retirements in Australia and France meant he went into the season finale, the Rally of Great Britain, in a straight shoot-out with long-term rival Mikko Hirvonen in the fight for the 2011 crown.

Loeb led in the early stages, but slipped to second as Hirvonen attacked – only for the Finn to suffer damage which put him out of the rally and ensured a deserved eighth crown for Loeb.

‘Senna’, the movie tribute to the life of three-time Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna, has won the Pioneering and Innovation Award at the 2011 AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The documentary film, which was released this year, has received rave reviews from critics during the year and brought the story of the iconic Brazilian driver, who was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, to new audiences.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner presented the award to writer and executive producer Manish Pandey, who worked with BAFTA-winning director Asif Kapadia and producer James Gay-Weeks on the film.

“Clearly he was a complicated man and the message we wanted to get across was that motor racing was a very human sport, and not just a bunch of cars going round a track,” said Pandey. “Senna brought that across.”

Senna was initially only released in a selected number of cinemas in the UK, but gained wider distribution by setting a new record for the highest-grossing opening weekend by a documentary film in British cinema history.

Since then it has won numerous accolades, including the audience award for a world cinema documentary at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and the audience award for best international feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Just hours before the AUTOSPORT Awards, the film was named best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards, as well as receiving two further nominations. It has also been nominated for four gongs at the Cinema Eye Honours and one – for best cinema documentary – at the Grierson Awards.

Gian Paolo Dallara, leading engineer and founder of Dallara Automobili, has been honoured with a John Bolster Award in recognition of his outfit’s outstanding achievements in motorsport.

The 2011 season was hugely successful for Dallara and confirmed its status as one of the world’s premier single-seater manufacturers. On top of supplying every chassis on this year’s IndyCar grid, Dallara won the tender process to build the new IndyCar chassis from 2012.

In addition Dallara supplied every car on the grid for GP2, GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 in 2011. Dallara drivers won every major Formula 3 title going this year – including the British, Euro Series and Japanese crowns plus the inaugural FIA Formula 3 International Trophy.

Dallara was presented with his award by Williams F1′s legendary co-founder and former engineering director Patrick Head. He also paid tribute to Dan Wheldon, whom the new IndyCar chassis is named after, as part of his acceptance.

“We had the opportunity to work with Dan in the simulator, the opportunity to know him better – because in the past we were staying outside from the racing track,” he explained.

“We realised how fantastic a person he was – not only very fast, but a person with a precise understanding of how to develop the car. It was unbelievable how nice staying with him after a day of work was.”

After graduating from Politecnico di Milano with an aeronautical engineering degree, Dallara joined the Ferrari racing department in 1959, before moving to Maserati and then in 1961 to Lamborghini as its chief designer.

After being lured into designing in the racing world by Alessandro de Tomaso, in 1972 Dallara established his own design company and worked as a consultant engineer for Lancia on the Stratos project, as well as building sports and GT cars.

In 1974 Frank Williams asked him to assist with the design of his Formula 1 cars, the first of which was the Williams FW01 piloted by Jacques Laffite and Arturo Merzario in 1975.

In 1977 Williams’ partner Walter Wolf asked Dallara to build an F3 car, which proved to be the start of the company’s enormous success in the category. It has been the dominant force in the category for the past 20 years.

In 1997 Dallara expanded into IndyCar racing and, with the current Dallara IR4 being retired at the end of this season, ensured its continued presence in the championship when selected by series officials to design the next generation chassis, dubbed the Dallara DW12 in honour of the late Wheldon.

The company has also enjoyed success in sportscars, winning the Daytona 24 Hours and the Grand-Am title, and had a stint in F1 with the Scuderia Italia team from 1988 to 1992.

Paul di Resta has been named as the AUTOSPORT.com Rookie of the Year at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The 25-year-old Force India driver beat off competition from fellow Formula 1 rookies Sergio Perez, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Daniel Ricciardo and Pastor Maldonado, plus Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, IndyCar first-timers James Hinchcliffe and JR Hildebrand, DTM racer Edoardo Mortara and GP3 rookie Lewis Williamson to win the award, which is voted for by readers of AUTOSPORT.com.

Di Resta, who joins a list of winners that includes former F1 world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and the late Dan Wheldon, was presented with his award by Patrick Head.

“It’s been a tough year,” said di Resta. “But it’s been an incredible journey. Force India gave me the opportunity two years ago to drive their car the first time and to help them to their best year, sixth in the constructors’ championship, is great.

“My personal highlight was qualifying for the British Grand Prix, when we started sixth. The race didn’t go quite so well, but there you go.”

Di Resta, the 2004 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner, made his F1 race debut this year with Force India after spending 2010 as the team’s reserve driver while simultaneously winning the DTM title for Mercedes.

He finished 10th on his grand prix debut in Australia and then followed up that result in Malaysia, becoming only the seventh driver in history to score points in their first two F1 races.

A superb first half of the season resulted in him outqualifying his more experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil 6-2 in the first eight races, and starting an impressive eighth on the grid for just his third race in China.

In total he started in the top 10 on five occasions and scored points in eight different races, netting 13th place in the championship with 27 points. His best finish came at the Singapore Grand Prix, where he was sixth.

Matt Neal has been named National Driver of the Year at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

Neal, who sealed his third British Touring Car Championship crown this year, beat his touring car rivals Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato and British Formula 3 champion Felipe Nasr to win the award.

Neal paid tribute to his fierce rivalry with Plato as he accepted the award, saying: “We have a bit of a love/hate relationship. He wants to win and fight his side and I do the same for mine.

“It is touring cars. Maybe we will do it again next year, but hopefully not to the same level. Thank you.”

Neal, 44, took seven wins and 13 podiums in his Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic on his way to his third BTCC title.

A stunning pole position in the Brands Hatch season opener proved a portent of the season to come.

Back-to-back wins on the Kent circuit and at Donington Park gave Neal an early championship lead, and as the normally-aspirated cars struggled for straightline speed the title race became a straight duel between Neal and team-mate Shedden at the Silverstone finale.

Neal took control, taking pole position and victory for the opening race, and thereafter looked untroubled on his way to BTCC title number three.

Alex Lynn has been named British Club Driver of the Year at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The 18-year-old Briton, who won the Formula Renault UK title this year, beat off competition from Formula Ford champion Scott Malvern, Renault Clio Cup title-winner Paul Rivett, British GT ace Jonathan Adam, Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion James Sutton and Formula Renault BARC title-winner Dino Zamparelli to win the award.

Lynn, who joins an illustrious list of former winners including David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti and Andy Priaulx, received his award from Johnny Herbert.

“I think you realise when you have a season like that, that it doesn’t happen every year, so I tried to savour every moment and every lap in the lead,” Lynn said. “I just tried to do my best.”

Lynn made his car racing debut in 2010 in Formula Renault UK with Fortec Motorsport, finishing 10th in the championship and then taking the Formula Renault Winter Cup title later in the year.

He remained in the category for a second season in 2011 and dominated proceedings with a record-breaking 12 wins, 14 pole positions and 10 fastest laps from 20 races, also with Fortec.

He was also a race-winner in the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series last winter and a podium finisher in a limited campaign in the Formula Renault Eurocup.

Next year he will graduate to British Formula 3 with Fortec and has also tested a Formula Renault 3.5 car for the team this month.

Young British drivers Emil Bernstorff, Tom Blomqvist, Alex Lynn, Scott Malvern, Oliver Rowland and Dino Zamparelli will find out tonight which of them has won the 2011 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award at the annual AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

The victor will join the likes of David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti, Jenson Button, Gary Paffett and Paul di Resta on the list of winners of the prestigious award, which this year features a cash prize of £100,000 as well as the traditional McLaren Formula 1 test, plus full BRDC membership, Puma racewear for a year, and a TW Steel watch.

The six contenders were assessed in Mercedes DTM, Formula 2 and McLaren GT3 machinery over two days at Silverstone last month.

This year’s finalists come from across the junior single-seater spectrum. Lynn beat Rowland to the Formula Renault UK title; the latter taking the Winter Series crown, while Malvern became champion in British Formula Ford.

Blomqvist was a race-winner on his way to sixth place in the German Formula 3 Cup while Bernstorff also competed in Germany, and finished third in ADAC Formel Masters. Zamparelli stayed on British shores and was champion in Formula Renault BARC.

You can watch the 2011 AUTOSPORT Awards Live and in its entirety right here on AUTOSPORT.com from 21:45 GMT.

GP2 champion and Renault Formula 1 reserve driver Romain Grosjean is to test for BMW’s DTM team.

Grosjean will join F3 Euro Series frontrunner Marco Wittmann for the try-out at Spain’s Monteblanco circuit from 6-8 December.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said: “Both have shown what they are capable of on numerous occasions in their racing series. We are looking forward to seeing how they handle the BMW M3 DTM.”

The test will also mark reigning DTM champion Martin Tomczyk’s first BMW outing, with Bruno Spengler and Andy Priaulx in action as well. Fellow 2012 signing Augusto Farfus will not be in action this time having conducted the previous test.

“We now have a very strong squad with four top drivers,” said Marquardt. “This allows us to work productively at the tests and ensure we push ahead with our project.

“This last test before the end of the year is once again very important to us. Our teams are already set up to function well. Our aim now is to validate the standard parts and complete as much work on the stability of our BMW M3 DTM as possible, so we can concentrate on getting the most out of the car and preparing for the start of the season in the new year.”

Martin Tomczyk will test BMW’s M3 DTM for the first time at Monteblanco next month.

The DTM champion, who announced earlier this week that he was leaving Audi after 11 years to join BMW, made the announcement at the manufacturer’s annual Sports Trophy Award Ceremony in Munich.

“This is obviously a very exciting and special evening for me,” said the 29-year-old German.

“To meet everyone in the BMW Motorsport family and immediately be accepted as a member of it is absolutely fantastic. I am really looking forward to the new challenge and cannot wait for the season to get started.

“First, however, I have the tests in Monteblanco on December 6-8 to look forward to, where I will be let loose on the track in the BMW M3 DTM for the first time.”

BMW, which is rejoining the DTM for the first time since 1992 next year, has been testing its new M3 for the past few months. So far, Bruno Spengler, Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus have been signed to partner Tomczyk.

The manufacturer also announced that from next year, the winner of the annual BMW Sports Trophy – awarded annually to the best-performing BMW privateer worldwide – will be awarded a prize DTM test.

Canadian Paul Dalla Lana was named as the winner of the 2011 award, his Grand-Am performances in an M3 having allowed him to finish ahead of Ricardo van der Ende and Robert Driscoll.

Martin Tomczyk will defend his DTM title with BMW in 2012 after confirming his switch to the series returnee.

Tomczyk, 29, won this year’s title with the Phoenix Audi squad, but revealed on Monday that he was quitting the manufacturer in search of a “new challenge”.

He has now been announced as a BMW driver alongside Bruno Spengler, Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus, much to the delight of BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt.

“Our squad of drivers is gradually firming up,” Marquardt said. “With Martin Tomczyk we are proud to have gained an absolute top-notch driver for our DTM involvement.

“Despite being fairly young in the touring car context, he is one of the most experienced DTM drivers around: he’s consistently fast, of impeccable character and an out-and-out winner.

“In 2011 he was the first driver ever to win the DTM championship in an older spec car. We will do everything we can to consolidate this success with him in the future.

“Our target is to become competitive as quickly as possible, and from that point of view we see Martin as an extremely important asset.”

BMW has yet to announce which of its three teams; Schnitzer, RBM or RMG, Tomczyk will race for next year.

DTM champion Martin Tomczyk has quit Audi after more than a decade with the manufacturer.

Tomczyk, 29, won three races on his way to the title this year, despite being demoted from the crack Abt Sportsline squad to an old-spec A4 run by the Phoenix Racing squad.

However, he now appears likely to join rival manufacturer BMW, which has been monitoring the German since January. Such a move would involve him linking up with Bruno Spengler, the man with whom he fought for this year’s title.

“I won the championship for Audi after 11 years together. The entire Audi Sport team and in particular [head of Audi Sport] Dr Wolfgang Ullrich have always been behind me throughout the many years we spent together,” Tomczyk said.

“I’m delighted that I could repay the trust by winning the 2011 championship title together with team Phoenix. Despite this joint success, and after careful consideration, I have now decided to accept a new challenge.

“I would once again like to thank everybody with whom I have worked together during my eleven years at Audi Sport and assure every single individual that these years were, in hindsight, something very special.”

Ullrich praised the job done by Tomczyk during his time with the manufacturer, but said he was sorry to see him leaving.

“It goes without saying that we deeply regret that he decided, at this moment in time, to seek a new challenge after his most successful DTM season with Audi,” said Ullrich.

“I can, however, completely understand that after eleven special years of highs and lows with Audi he would like to try something new – after all by winning the DTM title at the wheel of an Audi A4 DTM he has achieved exactly the goal for which he was worked so hard for many years.

“I’m personally delighted that Martin showed his many critics this year because I always believed in him. I can understand that to start he viewed the transfer to team Phoenix and a year-old car as demotion. But it gave, as I hoped, his career new impulses. I always enjoyed working together with Martin. He is a complete professional who I personally hold in high regard. I wish him all the best for the future.”

Audi has confirmed that its 2012 line-up will be capped at seven new A5s, two of which will be driven by former champions Mattias Eksttom and Timo Scheider.

Bruno Spengler’s maiden test for BMW at Monteblanco was shortened as he – and a number of team members – were struck down by illness.

An acute gastro-intestinal disease swept through the BMW camp during the three-day test in Spain, forcing the Canadian – who was allowed to test under a special dispensation from Mercedes (to whom he is still officially contracted) – to sit out the second day of running.

Mercedes made its team doctor available to BMW to assist the manufacturer with the treatment of its affected team members – who included motorsport director Jens Marquardt as well as Spengler.

“It was obviously unfortunate that some of our team members and drivers, me included, had to contend with health issues,” said Marquardt.

“I hope they get well soon, and would like to take this opportunity to thank Mercedes-Benz for its help. That shows once again how close the DTM family is.

“Nevertheless, we were able to complete another extensive programme of tests and make further progress in some areas of the development of our BMW M3 DTM. It was also very exciting to watch Bruno’s first laps in his future car.”

Despite Spengler’s limited running in the car, its Schnitzer, RBM and RMG teams still completed their test programmes.

As well as Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner, ALMS GT champion Joey Hand joined the driver line-up for his first taste of DTM machinery.

“It was great to get a first taste of the DTM car. It has a lot of downforce and really good carbon brakes,” said Hand. “You can really stand on the brakes and it is impossible to lock them. Also because of the downforce, the car is so hooked up in high-speed corners.

“This is something you need to get used to, but I managed to do so quite quickly. The test went very well and I enjoyed the Monteblanco circuit. It is a fun track. I had a great time with BMW Motorsport here.”

Brands Hatch’s 2012 DTM round will take place in May, three months earlier than it was staged this year.

The event was announced as round three of a 10 race calendar by series organiser the ITR on Friday, which has been heavily affected by an expanded Formula 1 calendar plus the presence of Euro 2012 and the Olympics.

In moving to May, the Brands event steers clear of any date clashes with the Olympics and Paralympics taking place in nearby London.

The addition of new F1 events has meant that the DTM calendar now features three back-to-backs, with round two at Lausitz taking place on May 6, just a week after the Hockenheim season-opener, and the Nurburgring and Zandvoort races in August also just seven days apart.

The non-championship ‘Show Event’ that ran for the first time at Munich’s Olympic Stadium this year, is scheduled for July 14-15.

DTM 2012 calendar

April 29        Hockenheim (D)
May 6           Lausitz (D)
May 20          Brands Hatch (GB)
June 3          Spielberg (A)
July 1          Norisring (D)
August 19       Nurburgring (D)
August 26       Zandvoort (NL)
September 16    Oschersleben (D)
September 30    Valencia (E)
October 21      Hockenheim (D)

Joey Hand will test BMW’s new DTM car at Monteblanco next week, while new signing Bruno Spengler will also have his first run-out for the manufacturer.

Hand, 32, won the ALMS GT crown for BMW this year and was the star driver in the BMW-engined Riley that won the Daytona 24 Hours for Chip Ganassi Racing, and has now been given the chance to test the M3 DTM by the manufacturer’s motorsport director Jens Marquardt.

“We are looking forward to the feedback from Joey Hand, who has enjoyed a superb ALMS season together with [co-champion] Dirk Muller, although Dirk has already had various opportunities of testing the BMW M3 DTM,” Marquardt said.

“Joey’s test also proves how tightly our various motorsport campaigns mesh together.”

Marquardt said that Spengler’s ability to test for BMW was only made possible due to Mercedes – for which he has spent all his DTM career to date – releasing him early from his contract.

“We would like to thank Bruno’s current employer Mercedes most sincerely for releasing him early for the tests. We appreciate this sporting gesture, which goes to show how well we co-operate behind the scenes.

“Now we can look forward to his first laps with our BMW M3 DTM, and his initial impressions of the car.”

Dirk Werner and Augusto Farfus, each of whom have tested the car on numerous occasions already, will also drive.

The Nurburgring will remain on the DTM calendar until at least 2014 after signing a new three-year agreement with the championship.

The German Grand Prix venue was listed as a ‘TBC’ on a provisional 2012 calendar published by the DTM in September, and has now been rubber-stamped by championship organiser the ITR.

“For a long time now the DTM – as the most popular international touring car series – has [been] established as one of the Nurburgring’s motor racing season highlights,” said Nurburgring Automotive Group shareholders Jorg Linder and Kai Richter.

Both added that the ongoing political issues surrounding the circuit had no effect on the deal and that signing it was simply a matter of course.

The DTM has visited the Nurburgring every season since its inception in 1984.

Phoenix Racing boss Ernst Moser hopes that Martin Tomczyk’s DTM title this year will convince Audi to award his team a top driver line-up next year.

Moser’s squad managed to win the championship with Tomczyk, despite running a pair of 2008-spec A4s for the German and Swiss rookie Rahel Frey.

But he now hopes that this success – which included three victories – will help his team continue to run at the front of the field alongside Audi’s ‘A’ team Abt Sportsline, which was the only one of the manufacturer’s outfits to run 2009-spec cars this season.

“I hope for a good driver pairing when Audi will have decided on the driver line-up this winter,” said Moser.

“And should we be able to battle it out at the front end of the field right from the beginning of the season, it would be nice if we could again become a factor in the fight for the title.”

Moser, who told AUTOSPORT of his desire to retain Tomczyk’s services following his title win at Valencia last month, believes that Audi’s new A5 DTM, which will make its race debut next year under the championship’s dramatically new technical regulations, is on-track in terms of development.

“I hope for a competitive car for the new DTM era,” he added. “And everything I’ve seen so far demonstrates that Audi once again is on the exactly right path, with the new Audi A5 DTM.”

Bruno Spengler will race for BMW in the 2012 DTM championship, the Munich-based manufacturer confirmed on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old French-Canadian has long been linked to a switch from Mercedes – with whom he has won nine times in the category since making his series debut in 2005.

Spengler becomes the third driver alongside multiple world touring car champion Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus to be announced in BMW’s DTM line-up as it prepares for its debut in the modern-spec DTM.

The German carmaker intends to run six BMW M3 DTMs next season under the supervision of three teams – Schnitzer, RBM and RMG – though it remains undisclosed who will drive for which outfit. Spengler’s experience and standing within the DTM field (he has been a title contender for the past two seasons) will however be considered a boost to BMW’s burgeoning programme.

“In recent weeks we have not only been developing the BMW M3 DTM, but have also been working on the driver line-up for our return to the DTM,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. “Outside our current line-up, Bruno Spengler was one of our top choices.

“Despite his youth he has a lot of DTM experience, which will greatly assist us during our development phase and on race weekends. For this reason, we did not hesitate when the opportunity to sign Bruno up arose. We have yet to decide which of our three teams he will drive for. That will be announced at a later stage.”

Jamie Green took his first victory of 2011 in the final DTM race of the season at Hockenheim.

From the front row, the British driver out-dragged polesitter Miguel Molina into the first corner, and was never challenged throughout the rest of the 38-lap race.

By lap five the HWA Mercedes man was already 2.5s clear, and he increased his lead to as much as 7s before the end to take the seventh win of his DTM career and the first since last year’s Norisring race.

New champion Martin Tomczyk made the best start of all from the second row, but failed in his attempts to squeeze between Green and Molina into the first corner. The Phoenix Audi driver did pass Molina’s similar 2008-spec A4 for second into the Spitzkehre on the opening lap, but was unable to mount a challenge to Green and finished second.

Molina was the first of the Abt drivers home in third and became the first Spaniard to finish on a DTM podium in the process.

Mike Rockenfeller had a slow first stint, prompting the Abt driver to be the first man to stop for fuel and tyres when the pit window opened on lap 10. His strategy kept him ahead of his team-mate Timo Scheider, who pitted a lap later.

Gary Paffett, who stopped at the same time as Rockenfeller, used his extra lap on fresh Hankook tyres to get alongside Scheider as the German exited the pits, and, after going round the outside of his rival at Turn 2, used the inside line as they entered the long back straight, to pull ahead.

Paffett closed his HWA Mercedes right onto Rockenfeller’s tail, but could not relieve him of fourth spot.

Scheider was passed with eight laps to go by his team-mate Mattias Ekstrom, the Swede having climbed up from 10th on the grid to take a sixth spot that helped him secure second place in the championship, ahead of Bruno Spengler.

Spengler ran wide at the Mercedes Arena on the opening lap, dropping from seventh to ninth, and was unable to climb any higher during the race. Between Ekstrom and the Canadian were Scheider and Oliver Jarvis.

David Coulthard finished a lap down after sliding into his right-front tyre man at his first pitstop, while Christian Vietoris retired his Persson Mercedes due to a problem with the right front of his car shortly after his first stop.

Results – 38 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1h00m45.734s

 2.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi          + 7.620s

 3.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi             + 10.142s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi             + 22.486s

 5.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes         + 23.985s

 6.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi             + 24.418s

 7.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi             + 32.358s

 8.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi             + 32.840s

 9.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes         + 33.201s

10.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi         + 34.967s

11.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes         + 36.068s

12.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes     + 42.319s

13.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi         + 46.307s

14.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes       + 46.772s

15.  Susie Wolff           Persson Mercedes     + 54.523s

16.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi       + 1m02.122s

17.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes         + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes       10 laps

Miguel Molina denied Jamie Green a first DTM pole for five years with a storming effort to take the top spot for this weekend’s season finale at Hockenheim.

The Spaniard, who was also on pole at Oschersleben recently, was the last man to take to the track in the one-lap final section of qualifying after going quickest in Q3 in his old-spec Abt Audi.

Knowing that he had to beat Green’s 1m32.920s lap on used tyres, something that Mike Rockenfeller and Martin Tomczyk had failed to do, Molina duly delivered by lapping in 1m32.717 to knock the HWA Mercedes off pole by 0.203s.

New champion Tomczyk and Rockenfeller completed the second row for the Phoenix and Abt Audi teams respectively.

Timo Scheider put his Abt car fifth, while Bruno Spengler – who was on pole for the Hockenheim season-opener – was sixth quickest for HWA. Behind them were Gary Paffett (HWA) and Oliver Jarvis (Abt).

It was in Q2 where the real drama unfolded. As the chequered flag went out, neither Spengler, nor Mattias Ekstrom – the drivers battling for the runner-up spot in the championship this weekend – had their places inside the top eight, and therefore in Q3, confirmed.

However, as Edoardo Mortara went straight on and into the tyre barriers at the Sachs Kurve, out came the yellow flags in the final sector, effectively barring any driver from improving their best times.

The Rosberg Audi driver’s misfortune was good news for Spengler, who lay eighth at the time in his HWA Mercedes, and sneaked into Q3 as a result. Ekstrom, by contrast, was unable to improve on his 10th spot behind Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg).

Mortara will start 11th, ahead of Persson Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris and Ralf Schumacher (HWA).

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m32.717s

 2.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m32.920s  + 0.203s

 3.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m33.039s  + 0.322s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m33.510s  + 0.793s

 5.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m32.883s  Q3

 6.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m32.922s  Q3

 7.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m33.103s  Q3

 8.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m33.188s  Q3

 9.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m33.085s  Q2

10.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m33.103s  Q2

11.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m33.144s  Q2

12.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m33.172s  Q2

13.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m33.352s  Q2

14.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m33.617s  Q2

15.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m33.539s  Q1

16.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m33.761s  Q1

17.  Susie Wolff           Persson Mercedes  1m33.930s  Q1

18.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m34.090s  Q1

Timo Scheider went quickest in second practice for this weekend’s DTM season finale at Hockenheim, the Abt Audi driver jumping to the head of the timesheets with a lap in the final minute of the session.

Scheider had run strongly throughout the 90-minute session, and eventually delivered a benchmark time of 1m32.682s to knock the Phoenix Audi of new champion Martin Tomczyk off the top spot by 0.033s.

Times had improved significantly since the beginning of the session, with track temperatures improving from 2 degrees at the start to 4.4 by the end, and this meant that nearly every driver set their best lap during their last run.

Mattias Ekstrom, the championship’s in-form driver following three wins and a second place in the last four races, was third quickest with his Abt team-mates Miguel Molina and Oliver Jarvis behind him.

Christian Vietoris was the best Mercedes driver, the German taking his old-spec Persson car to sixth, ahead of HWA’s Jamie Green in a newer C-class.

The top 10 was completed by Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg Audi), Mike Rockenfeller (Abt) and Bruno Spengler (HWA).

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m32.682s

 2.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m32.715s  + 0.033s

 3.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m32.862s  + 0.180s

 4.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m32.882s  + 0.200s

 5.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m32.891s  + 0.209s

 6.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m32.897s  + 0.215s

 7.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m32.903s  + 0.221s

 8.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m33.029s  + 0.347s

 9.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m33.128s  + 0.446s

10.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m33.130s  + 0.448s

11.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m33.171s  + 0.489s

12.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m33.199s  + 0.517s

13.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m33.282s  + 0.600s

14.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m33.326s  + 0.644s

15.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m33.362s  + 0.680s

16.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m33.488s  + 0.806s

17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m33.640s  + 0.958s

18.  Susie Wolff           Persson Mercedes  1m33.676s  + 0.994s

BMW has revealed the livery of its M3 DTM machinery ahead of this weekend’s season finale at Hockenheim.

The manufacturer, which will re-enter the championship next year after a 20-year absence, presented the car in its traditional white, blue and red motorsport livery.

BMW has been testing the M3 DTM for the past six weeks, although the car has always appeared in an interim testing livery during that time; the version launched publicly in July having been seen in a black trim.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt, who unveiled the car, said that the M3 on display was “close to being a definitive version,” of the car that will race, with room still available for design tweaks to me made during its ongoing testing programme.

“We have until March next year when everything has to be homologated, so I’m sure there can be little changes in some areas while we look for more performance,” he said.

Factory driver Dirk Werner will perform a number of demonstration laps in the car at Hockenheim on Sunday.

New DTM champion Martin Tomczyk set the pace in the first free practice session for this weekend’s season finale at Hockenheim.

The Phoenix Audi driver, who wrapped up the title last time out at Valencia, only hit the front in the final minute, his 1m33.621s lap in his old-spec A4 knocking Christian Vietoris’ Persson Mercedes off the top spot by 0.263s.

Vietoris was knocked back to third before the session’s end by Mucke Mercedes driver Maro Engel, who lapped 0.168s off Tomczyk’s pace.

Mike Rockenfeller was the best of the drivers in current-spec machinery, the German and his Abt Audi team-mates Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider taking three of the next four spots with only Renger van der Zande getting in among them; the Dutchman fifth in his Persson Mercedes.

Filipe Albuquerque, fresh from his maiden DTM podium finish at Valencia, put his Rosberg Audi eighth, ahead of Susie Stoddart – who is now competing as Susie Wolff following her marriage to Williams F1 stakeholder Toto Wolff since Valencia.

David Coulthard completed the top 10 in his Mucke Mercedes while Bruno Spengler was the best of the HWA Mercedes contingent in 12th.

Practice got underway an hour behind schedule due to thick fog at Hockenheim earlier in the day that would have prevented the medical helicopter from taking off, had the need arisen.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m33.621s

 2.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m33.289s  + 0.168s

 3.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m33.884s  + 0.263s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m33.983s  + 0.362s

 5.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m34.039s  + 0.418s

 6.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m34.089s  + 0.468s

 7.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m34.259s  + 0.638s

 8.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m34.337s  + 0.716s

 9.  Susie Wolff           Persson Mercedes  1m34.485s  + 0.864s

10.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m34.504s  + 0.883s

11.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m34.511s  + 0.890s

12.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m34.553s  + 0.932s

13.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m34.602s  + 0.981s

14.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m34.632s  + 1.011s

15.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m34.747s  + 1.126s

16.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m34.819s  + 1.198s

17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m34.930s  + 1.309s

18.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m34.986s  + 2.365s

Ralf Schumacher will continue to race for Mercedes-Benz in the 2012 DTM season after securing an extension to his deal.

The German driver, the younger brother of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael, made his DTM debut in 2008 and next season will mark his fifth campaign in the series.

Schumacher scored his first two podium finishes in the DTM this year, with a third place at Hockenheim and a second at the Red Bull Ring.

“DTM is a fantastic championship and, after four years as part of the Mercedes-Benz family, I feel in the best place possible,” said Schumacher. “So I’m all the more delighted to be starting a new era next year together with Mercedes-Benz.

“With the new technical regulations and the arrival of BMW on the scene as the third premium manufacturer alongside Audi and Mercedes-Benz, DTM has an exciting future, and I feel privileged to be playing my part in development of the new DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupe.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug added: “Ralf Schumacher isn’t only the best-known driver in the DTM, he’s also one of the most-liked and most successful in international motorsport.

“I rate very highly the fact that Ralf walked the difficult road from Formula One to the DTM, boosted the series’ popularity and continuously improved until he scored his first podium.”

Rene Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay and Richie Stanaway all made their DTM test debuts for BMW at Lausitz earlier this week.

The trio said that they had enjoyed their first taste of the M3, which is built to the championship’s new for 2012 technical regulations, and which was also driven by Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus, Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner.

“I really enjoyed the test,” said Rast, who is on the verge of wrapping up his second straight Porsche Supercup title.

“It was a superb experience. I felt very comfortable in the team and learned a lot. In general I am happy with my performance. I think I did what was expected of me.

“The car is good-natured and fun to drive. The dynamics and powerful brakes, in particular, are a bit different to the cars I have driven in the past, but I was able to adapt quickly and keep pushing myself to the limit.”

Vernay, the 2010 Indy Lights champion and Stanaway, the German Formula 3 champion, echoed Rast’s sentiments.

“The car is amazing, it has so much grip and downforce,” said Vernay. “I think that my lap times were okay, I was able to improve them as the test progressed. I had a great feeling for the car.”

BMW’s car will be driven publicly by Werner during the weekend of the DTM season finale at Hockenheim, and will be displayed alongside the new cars from rival manufacturers Mercedes and Audi.

Rene Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay and Richie Stanaway will all test BMW’s 2012 DTM car at Lausitz next week as the manufacturer continues to evaluate drivers for its line-up next year.

The young trio will join Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus – already confirmed for next year’s championship – plus factory BMW GT drivers Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner at the test. All three BMW teams; Schnitzer, RBM and RMG will run a car each.

“We are delighted to be able to offer a selection of talented, young drivers like Rene Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay and Richie Stanaway, the opportunity to test our BMW M3 DTM,” said BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt.

“They have already proven their ability in various racing series and we are now looking forward to seeing them in our DTM car. At the same time, the focus at the Lausitz test will once again be to gather important information and data on the BMW M3 DTM, as we continue to prepare for the 2012 season.”

Rast, 24, has previously driven a DTM car, the German – who is on course to win back-to-back Porsche Supercup titles – having tested an Audi last winter.

Since winning last year’s Indy Lights title, Frenchman Vernay, 25, has been limited to a one-off Formula Renault 3.5 outing plus selected sportscar and GT events.

Stanaway, 19, is the youngest of the trio and has had a successful year; the Kiwi having won the German F3 title in his maiden year in the category plus taking a GP3 win at Spa.

The selected drivers are ADAC Formel Masters front-runner Emil Bernstorff, German Formula 3 racer Tom Blomqvist, Formula Renault UK points leader Alex Lynn, British Formula Ford champion Scott Malvern, Formula Renault UK race-winner Oliver Rowland, and top Formula Renault BARC driver Dino Zamparelli.

Blomqvist, who is still recovering from his crash at Lausitz last month, and Malvern contested last year’s award, but the other four Britons are first-time finalists.

The six will be assessed in a test at Silverstone in November by a panel of judges. The panel includes former Formula 1 racer and BRDC president Derek Warwick, two-time BTCC champion Jason Plato, DTM ace Jamie Green, McLaren head of vehicle engineering Mark Williams, veteran commentator Ian Titchmarsh, and AUTOSPORT’s Kevin Turner and Marcus Pye.

The winner, who will be revealed at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London in December, will be awarded £100,000, a McLaren F1 test drive, full BRDC membership, a supply of Puma racewear for 2012, and a TW Steel watch.

Former winners of the award, which aims to promote young British racing talent, include 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button, 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard, Peugeot LMP racer Anthony Davidson, Green, and three-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti.

THE CHOSEN BRITONS

Emil Bernstorff
Age: 18
2011: Currently third in ADAC Formel Masters with Motopark Academy.

Bernstorff’s first season in cars came last year, when he contested the British Formula Ford Championship with Jamun Racing. He was often quick – scoring five fastest laps – but problems getting off the line prevented a victory and meant he finished seventh in the points.

A switch to the German Formel Masters category for 2011 paid off and Bernstorff fought for the crown. Although the season is finished, he could yet finish second in the championship if two of his rivals lose points due to issues over legality in one of the Assen races.

Tom Blomqvist
Age: 17
2011: Sixth in German Formula 3 Cup with Performance Racing

After winning the Formula Renault UK title in 2010, Blomqvist switched to the German F3 Cup this season. He was immediately a frontrunner, up against the highly-rated Richie Stanaway and the more experienced Marco Sorensen.

The son of former rallying legend Stig took his first F3 win at Zolder, but a nasty startline crash at Lausitz broke his back and ended Blomqvist’s season prematurely. He nevertheless still finished sixth in the standings and is recovering well.

Alex Lynn
Age: 17
2011: Currently leading Formula Renault UK with Fortec Motorsport

Lynn came on a lot during his inaugural Formula Renault UK campaign in 2010, culminating in the Winter Cup crown. He then proved a race-winner in the competitive New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series at the start of this season.

The teenager carried that form into the 2011 Formula Renault UK championship and has generally set the pace. It’s not all been plain sailing – he lost points due to a technical infringement, won them back after an appeal, and then lost another win due to a separate legality issue – but just needs a point to wrap up the title in the Silverstone finale later this month.

Scott Malvern
Age: 22
2011: British Formula Ford champion with Jamun Racing

Having stepped up from club Formula Ford 1600, Malvern fought a hard battle for the British Formula Ford crown in 2010. In the end, the Ray driver narrowly missed out to Scott Pye’s Jamun Mygale in the title race.

Budget issues meant Malvern couldn’t graduate to a higher rung on the single-seater ladder and instead he joined Jamun for a second crack at the Ford title. He had to dominate and did, wrapping up the championship early and winning all four standalone Formula Ford EuroCup crowns.

Oliver Rowland
Age: 19
2011: Currently third in Formula Renault UK with Fortec Motorsport

A highly rated karter, Rowland has suffered a difficult personal life, with both his father and mentor Martin Hines passing away as he has tried to build his career. He has nevertheless impressed in his first year of Formula Renault UK.

Initially the Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver had to give best to Lynn, but Rowland has come on strong of late and took an impressive double on the challenging Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit earlier this month.

Dino Zamparelli
Age: 19
2011: Currently leading Formula Renault BARC standings with Antel Motorsport

Zamparelli was a champion in the British Ginetta Junior series before stepping in to single-seaters for 2009. He finished third in the Formula Renault BARC standings in his first season, but couldn’t put a full campaign together for 2010.

A deal with Antel Motorsport made Formula Renault BARC his focus for 2011. The championship has had a strong field of teams and drivers this season and Zamparelli has been on top. He looks likely to take the crown at the Silverstone finale this month, which supports the British Touring Car Championship.

Bruno Spengler believes his damper failure at Oschersleben cost him his chance of winning this year’s DTM title.

The HWA Mercedes driver shot into an early championship lead after winning twice during the opening half of the season, but saw his Audi rival Martin Tomczyk wrap up the championship at Valencia last weekend with a round to spare.

While gracious in defeat, the Canadian, who is now only two points ahead of third-placed Mattias Ekstrom ahead of the Hockenheim finale, said that his aim is now to secure the runner-up spot in the championship in three weeks’time.

“We were very unlucky in Oschersleben, and that’s what cost us the title,” said Spengler. “We had eight good points there that we lost. It’s really tough for the whole team.

“Sure I don’t feel good about it, but it’s not the worst thing in the world to be able to fight for a championship as close as this four times. I’ll just hold up and carry on and go to Hockenheim trying to win now.”

Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug agreed with Spengler’s assessment of the season, but praised his driver, who is the only Mercedes man to have won or started from pole position during 2011.

“The damper was our killer at the end of the day,” he said. “I’m disappointed, but I’m a sportsman at the end of the day and if somebody else does a better job then it is what it is.

“I’m not the man to say that second is first of the losers, because that is certainly not the case with Bruno, and a sportsman can see that when you challenge for a title like this four times in seven years, you are no loser.”

Martin Tomczyk was unable to describe his feelings after wrapping up his first DTM title with a third placed finish at Valencia.

The 29-year-old German twice overturned points deficits to Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler earlier this year, meaning that after a decade of competition in the DTM, and after having been demoted from the Abt squad to an old-spec Phoenix Audi this season, he was able to secure the championship with his podium finish.

“At the moment it’s difficult to find the right words, but sure I’m happy,” said the new champion. “I’ve been 11 years in DTM and I’ve finally won the championship.

“At the beginning of the season nobody counted on me with the circumstances I had, coming in the last year’s car and getting a new engineer. But for I have to thank Phoenix Racing and [team principal] Ernst Moser.

“We followed a goal and we soon had to change our goal from just being the best last year’s car, but fighting for the championship. This we did successfully. It’s not just Phoenix, also Abt and Rosnerg, and they played really well together and it all worked out.

“Sure it’s a nice feeling to win in a last year’s car, but at the end of the day the title is the title, and as long as you win it, it doesn’t matter what you’re driving.:

Race winner Mattias Ekstrom, who memorably beat both Spengler and Tomzcyk to take the 2007 DTM crown at the Hockenheim finale, said that his fellow Audi driver’s title was a long time in the making.

“I know exactly what he’s feeling right now,” said the Swede. “He’s been my team-mate for 10 or 11 years and he’s helped me a lot in the past.

“A lot of people doubted him, I know, but when I won the 2007 title and he had a puncture in that race, I knew he’d only lost because of bad luck, and when you’re a driver who works hard – like Martin – and not a lazy one, you make more luck. He’s made zero mistakes this year and really deserves this.”

Mattias Ekstrom continued his fine recent form with another DTM win at Valencia, but the spotlight was on fellow Audi driver Martin Tomczyk, who finished third to wrap up the championship.

Ekstrom was in a class of his own during the race, building a five-second lead over Filipe Albuquerque before the pit window opened and eventually winning by over double that margin.

It was the Abt driver’s third win in the last four races, but his performance was matched by that of Albuquerque, who took his old-spec Rosberg Audi to his first DTM podium finish.

Tomczyk’s run to third began with a rocket start from 10th on the grid. The Phoenix Audi driver was sixth at the end of the opening lap and moved ahead of the old-spec Mercedes of David Coulthard and Renger van der Zande, plus Timo Scheider’s Abt Audi at the second round of stops to become the first man in an old-spec car to become DTM champion.

Coulthard and van der Zande, who had run third and fourth early on for the Mucke and Persson teams respectively, were also passed by Scheider during the stops as the two-time champion ran an ultra-long first stint and gained time on the clear track.

Scheider finished fourth ahead of van der Zande – who took the best result of his DTM career – and Coulthard, although the Mercedes men were racing under appeal after their cars failed post-qualifying checks and under new rules introduced this year, will not be classified in the official results unless an appeal is successful.

Miguel Molina was next up and classified a seaon’s best fifth, the Spaniard having lost out to his Abt team-mate Oliver Jarvis at the first round of stops, but passing the Briton into Turn 1 on lap 16.

Jamie Green ran ahead of his HWA team-mate Bruno Spengler during the race, but allowed the Canadian past on the final lap to take ninth on the road and seventh in the results, the extra point possibly proving crucial in his battle with Ekstrom for second in the championship.

Gary Paffett completed the points scorers in eighth and was followed home by Abt’s Mike Rockenfeller – who started dismally from fifth on the grid – and Green.

Results to follow…

Miguel Molina headed an all-Audi top five to set the pace in DTM warm-up at Valencia.

The Abt Audi driver’s best lap of 1m31.242s came just five minutes into the session, and with temperatures climbing throughout, it proved enough to keep him on top of the timesheets ahead of polesitter Mattias Ekstrom by 0.096s.

Ekstrom, also in an Abt car, was followed by championship leader Martin Tomczyk’s Phoenix Audi, Timo Scheider’s Abt A4 and the Rosberg machine of Edoardo Mortara.

Gary Paffett was Mercedes’ best performer in sixth in his HWA machine, ahead of Oliver Jarvis (Abt), Ralf Schumacher (HWA) and front-row starter Filipe Albuqerque’s Rosberg Audi.

Title contender Bruno Spengler, who needs to beat Tomczyk to stand a realistic chance of winning the championship at Hockenheim later this month, completed the top 10 for HWA.

Times to follow…

Mercedes drivers David Coulthard and Renger van der Zande could be excluded from the Valencia DTM round after their cars were found to be illegal after qualifying.

Both men, who race old-spec C-class machines, were found to have rear overhangs that were ‘not in compliance with the DTM technical regulations,’ due to the rear wings not being correctly mounted.

Stewards initially disqualified both drivers from qualifying, meaning that the pair were sent to the back of the grid from their third and fourth places.

However, both the Mucke and Persson Mercedes teams have signalled their intention to protest the decision, meaning that both will start the race from their original grid positions and race under appeal.

Should the teams lose their appeals to the Spanish motorsport authority, or choose not to file them, both drivers are likely to be disqualified from the race as well.

Renger van der Zande has lost his third place on the grid for the Valencia DTM race after a tyre mix-up during qualifying.

Race stewards found that the Dutchman had used two sets of tyres during Q3 – one more than is allowed.

However, they conceded that as he had not completed a flying lap on the second set, the only advantage the Persson Mercedes driver gained was during the following Q4 session.

Therefore van der Zande had his only Q4 lap time cancelled, dropping him from third place to fourth on the grid, while the Persson squad was fined 1000 euros.

Van der Zande’s penalty promotes fellow Mercedes driver David Coulthard to third spot on the grid.

Mattias Ekstrom took his second DTM pole position of the year at Valencia while title contenders Martin Tomczyk and Bruno Spengler both endured disastrous sessions.

Ekstrom had made it through to the one-lap Q4 shoot-out after setting the fastest lap time of the weekend in the previous section of qualifying, and used the advantage afforded by being the last driver to take to the track to take the 19th pole of his DTM career in a time of 1m30.608s.

Surprisingly DTM rookies Filipe Albuquerque and Renger van der Zande will start second and third after the Rosberg Audi and Persson Mercedes drivers took their career-best starting spots; Albuquerque 0.413s slower than Ekstrom in Q4.

David Coulthard completed the second row in another old Mercedes, the grand prix winner also taking the best grid spot of his career in his Mucke car.

The usual scrabble for the top eight spots in Q2 became redundant when Edoardo Mortara spun his Rosberg Audi into the gravel at the Manuel Herreros corner and brought out the red flags.

While the Italian consigned himself to 14th spot on the grid, the remaining 13 cars were allowed into a lengthened 13-minute Q3, all pushing for a top-four spot that would ensure progression into the one-lap shoot-out.

While Ekstrom, van der Zande, Coulthard and Albuquerque – the latter knocking Mike Rockenfelller out of the reckoning with just 26 seconds remaining – the remaining nine cars had their positions set at this stage.

These included Abt quartet Rockenfeller, Miguel Molina, Timo Scheider and Oliver Jarvis and HWA Mercedes pair Gary Paffett and Ralf Schumacher, who rounded out the top 10.

Tomczyk, who was a consistent top-six runner before the red flags, could do no better than 11th in his Phoenix Audi while Spengler – the year’s best qualifier – climbed out of his HWA Mercedes with three minutes of Q3 still to go and will start 13th, behind his team-mate Jamie Green.

All three drivers, however, will move up a spot when Schumacher’s three-place penalty, carried over from Oschersleben, is applied.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m30.608s
 2.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m31.021s  + 0.413s
 3.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m31.173s  + 0.565s
 4.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m31.338s  + 0.730s
 5.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m30.202s  Q3
 6.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m30.212s  Q3
 7.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m30.234s  Q3
 8.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m30.240s  Q3
 9.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m30.297s  Q3
10.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m30.304s  Q3
11.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m30.554s  Q3
12.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m30.602s  Q3
13.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m30.621s  Q3
14.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi                 Q2
15.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m30.583s  Q1
16.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m30.587s  Q1
17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m30.712s  Q1
18.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m30.739s  Q1

Miguel Molina remained the man to beat in the second DTM practice session at Valencia as Audis took the top five places in the order.

In far cooler temperatures than those experienced during Friday afternoon’s opening session, local driver Molina quickly took his old-spec Abt Audi into the top spot in a time of 1m30.700 – a second up on his time less than 24 hours earlier.

He reduced the benchmark to 1m30.452 with 15 minutes remaining, which was enough to secure the top spot by just 0.019s.

During the final 10 minutes he came under threat from a succession of Audis, with his Abt team-mates Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstrom, plus Team Rosberg driver Edoardo Mortara all moving up the order. Ekstrom wound up second, ahead of Mortara, Rockenfeller and Filipe Albuquerque in the second Rosberg car.

Bruno Spengler, who is only guaranteed to take the title fight down to the Hockenheim finale by winning, was Mercedes’ best driver, the HWA man sixth ahead of his team-mates Jamie Green and Gary Paffett.

Timo Scheider (Abt) and Ralf Schumacher (HWA) completed the top 10 ahead of series leader Martin Tomczyk, whose Phoenix Audi was knocked back from fourth to 11th during the final five minutes.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m30.452s

 2.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m30.471s  + 0.019s

 3.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m30.477s  + 0.025s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m30.597s  + 0.145s

 5.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m30.681s  + 0.229s

 6.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m30.741s  + 0.289s

 7.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m30.793s  + 0.341s

 8.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m30.867s  + 0.415s

 9.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m30.919s  + 0.467s

10.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m30.938s  + 0.486s

11.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m30.941s  + 0.489s

12.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m31.074s  + 0.622s

13.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m31.248s  + 0.796s

14.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m31.302s  + 0.850s

15.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m31.330s  + 0.878s

16.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m31.342s  + 0.890s

17.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m31.347s  + 0.895s

18.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m31.437s  + 0.985s

Bruno Spengler has promised he’ll be on maximum attack during this weekend’s DTM round at Valencia in a bid to take the title battle down to the Hockenheim finale in October.

The HWA Mercedes driver has traded the championship lead with Martin Tomzcyk all year, but a late retirement at Oschersleben last time out – due to a broken damper – has dropped him nine points behind the Phoenix Audi driver.

While this is the furthest off the series lead he has been all year, the Canadian – who let a 17-point lead over eventual champion Paul di Resta slip away last year – has vowed not to give up.

“I’ve put my Oschersleben retirement behind me now,” Spengler said. “Motor racing is an unpredictable sport and sometimes you have to expect bad luck.

“I’ll be attacking in the last two races and going all-out to win the championship – there is still everything to play for. My team and I certainly aren’t giving up.”

Tomczyk, meanwhile, is taking nothing for granted, despite Audi having triumphed at the circuit last year.

He pointed to the dramas of qualifying at Oschersleben – during which he could only manage 14th on the grid after going the wrong way on set-up – as an indication of the fine line between victory and defeat.

“Arriving at Valencia with nine points of advantage is nice, but we still have to work hard in a focused manner,” he said. “Oschersleben showed how quickly something can happen.”

Only one other driver can win the title with two races to go; Abt Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom, who has had two wins and a second place from the last three events and won at Valencia last year.

The Swede, already a two-time DTM champion, is 19 points behind Tomczyk with only 20 still available.

Miguel Molina warmed up for his home round of the DTM by setting the pace in the opening practice session at Valencia.

The Spaniard took his old-spec Abt Audi to the top of the timesheets in 1m31.770s just 20 minutes into the session, and was never headed as temperatures increased on a dry afternoon.

Gary Paffett was Mercedes’ top driver in second, 0.041s slower than Molina. Like the Audi man, the HWA driver’s best lap came inside the first half hour.

The championship’s in-form driver, Mattias Ekstrom, was third for Abt in the best of the newer-spec A4s, while HWA trio Ralf Schumacher, Jamie Green and Bruno Spengler filled the next three spots on what was an unusually competitive Friday showing for the Mercedes’ ‘A’ team.

Abt’s Timo Scheider and Persson Mercedes driver Renger van der Zande were next up, with Filipe Albuqerque ninth in his Rosberg Audi.

Martin Tomczyk, who will be crowned champion if he wins Sunday’s race, completed the top 10 in his Phoenix Audi. In a typically closed session, just 1.3s separated the top 17 drivers.

Times to follow…

Dirk Werner became the latest driver to test BMW’s 2012 DTM machine during two days of running at the Hungaroring this week.

The German joined Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus – the only two confirmed race drivers for the manufacturer next year – and Dirk Muller at the test. Jorg Muller, who drove at Lausitz last week, was not present.

As at Lausitz, all three of BMW’s 2012 DTM squads; Schnitzer, RBM and RMG ran a car with Werner and Muller – both members of the manufacturer’s GT line-up – taking a day each.

“It was a great feeling to be able to test the BMW M3 DTM for the first time,” said Werner. “It is very different to the BMW M3 GT. The carbon brakes, in particular, require a big readjustment. The car felt very good from the first moment.

“We made good progress over the course of the day. I am looking forward to the next opportunity to do some more testing.”

Priaulx, a three-time World Touring Car champion for BMW, added: “In this current phase every test is very important to us.

“The way the car and tyres interact is a particularly important factor in order to ensure we are competitive, and that was a key component of our test programme.

“With every test we have a better understanding of the car. We gained more important knowledge again here at the Hungaroring.”

Ralf Schumacher has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next round of the DTM at Valencia.

The HWA Mercedes driver was judged to have “conducted a dangerous manoeuvre while re-entering the track” by race stewards after spinning off at Turn 1 during the middle part of the race at Oschersleben on Sunday.

Schumacher almost wiped out his team-mate Jamie Green while rejoining, and was hit by the unsighted Audi of Oliver Jarvis a few seconds later. Schumacher’s race ended two corners later after he made contact with Filipe Albuquerque.

Mattias Ekstrom took his second win in three DTM races with a dominant performance in wet conditions at Oschersleben while title contenders Martin Tomczyk and Bruno Spengler suffered differing fortunes.

The Swede, who had started from fourth spot, grabbed the lead from Spengler’s HWA Mercedes into Turn 3 on lap eight and steadily pulled away to victory by over 42 seconds in his Abt Audi.

Spengler looked set for a comfortable second place until the front end of his car began to bounce around excessively at high speeds, possibly after the Canadian clattered a kerb at the chicane just after his first pitstop.

He made his second stop earlier than planned, but lost more than 20s as the HWA crew struggled to remove his right-front wheel and dropped to 11th spot, leaving himself a huge task to move back into the points in the 14 laps that remained.

His problem moved Tomczyk’s Phoenix Audi – which had started down in 14th – up to second, but the championship leader immediately threw the position away by going off at Turn 1, dropping behind Edoardo Mortara’s Rosberg-run A4.

Tomczyk, who had brilliantly climbed to sixth place by the end of the first lap, repassed Mortara for second following the final stops and finished there to increase his championship lead to nine points over Spengler – who retired with two laps to go after complaining of fading brakes – with only two races to go and 20 points available.

Gary Paffett and Christian Vietoris, who started from the back row, both staged magnificent recovery drives to finish fourth and fifth, the HWA and Persson Mercedes drivers making the most of long first stints to climb up the order.

Vietoris, who claimed his best DTM finish, held off Mike Rockenfeller’s Abt Audi by just under a second, while Maro Engel recovered from being tipped into a spin on the first lap to finish seventh in his Mucke Mercedes.

Polesitter Miguel Molina had a fraught race. He went off at the first corner of the race, losing the lead to Spengler and rejoining just in time to spin his Abt team-mate Timo Scheider down to the back of the field.

The Spaniard ran third during the early stages, but eventually fell back to finish eighth – still his best result of the year – following a trip through the gravel at Turn 7 late on. Scheider, meanwhile, drove magnificently to climb to fifth by half-distance – right behind Mortara – but he was ordered to park by his team as his engine temperature began to soar.

After running inside the top five early on, Oliver Jarvis went off twice and became involved in a close scrap with Jamie Green during the closing stages; the Abt and HWA cars making contact on a number of occasions.

Jarvis finished ninth, with David Coulthard getting his Mucke Mercedes ahead of Green by the end too.

Ralf Schumacher ran fourth early on, but spun back to seventh at Turn 1 under pressure from Tomczyk and then collided with Filipe Albuquerque’s Rosberg Audi two corners later, putting him out.

Results – 45 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1h16m14.996s

 2.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi         + 42.167s

 3.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi         + 43.376s

 4.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes         + 53.184s

 5.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes     + 53.873s

 6.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi             + 54.795s

 7.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes       + 56.504s

 8.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi           + 1m04.593s

 9.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi           + 1m22.704s

10.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes     + 1m25.008s

11.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes       + 1m27.514s

12.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi           + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes           42 laps

     Timo Scheider         Abt Audi               25 laps

     Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi           11 laps

     Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes            9 laps

     Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes        6 laps

     Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes        2 laps

Martin Tomczyk rebounded from a disastrous DTM qualifying session by setting the pace in warm-up at Oschersleben.

The championship leader, who will start back in 14th place, had been a consistent top-six runner all session after drastic overnight set-up changes to his Phoenix Audi, and went to the top of the timesheets in 1m23.551s in the final minute.

His lap knocked the Abt A4 car of Mattias Ekstrom off the top spot by 0.023s, with Filipe Albuquerque completing an all-Audi top three in his Rosberg-run car.

Christian Vietoris was the best of the Mercedes drivers in his old-spec Persson car, with David Coulthard’s Mucke-run example ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who was the best of HWA’s clan in sixth.

Polesitter Miguel Molina was seventh in his Abt Audi, ahead of Bruno Spengler’s HWA Mercedes and Timo Scheider.

Scheider repeated his practice incident at Turn 1 by outbraking himself and running straight on with five minutes to go. The two-time champion was able to complete a U-turn and rejoin the circuit without reaching the gravel.

Renger van der Zande completed the top 10 in his Persson Mercedes while HWA drivers Jamie Green and Gary Paffett were down in 14th and 15th spots.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m23.551s

 2.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m23.574s  + 0.023s

 3.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m23.588s  + 0.037s

 4.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m23.591s  + 0.040s

 5.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m23.842s  + 0.291s

 6.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m24.020s  + 0.469s

 7.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m24.026s  + 0.475s

 8.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m24.041s  + 0.490s

 9.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m24.042s  + 0.491s

10.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m24.113s  + 0.562s

11.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m24.136s  + 0.585s

12.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m24.200s  + 0.649s

13.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m24.243s  + 0.692s

14.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m24.287s  + 0.736s

15.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m24.289s  + 0.738s

16.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m24.530s  + 0.979s

17.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m24.535s  + 0.984s

18.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m24.569s  + 1.018s

Martin Tomczyk is praying for rain at Oschersleben on Sunday as he believes it’s his only chance of a strong result.

The DTM championship leader could only manage 14th on the grid in his Phoenix Audi while HWA Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler – who trails him by just a point with three races to go – is on the front row.

Although most local forecasts predict rain during the morning and a dry afternoon, a wet race is a possibility. And after dominating in horrible conditions at Spielberg and Brands Hatch, Tomczyk believes that a downpour is his only chance of victory this weekend.

“It’s not a great circuit for overtaking places, and from where I am it will be very difficult to score points,” Tomczyk told AUTOSPORT. “Maybe I can make up five or six places if we get the strategy perfect, but even then it’s only one point.

“But there is a prediction for rain, and this I am praying for, because it’s my only chance to get to the front.

“The positive thing is that Miguel [Molina] and Olly [Jarvis] are at the front of the grid and they both really want to win, so maybe they can limit the points Bruno gets. I hope so.

Tomczyk blamed the set-up of his car for his worst qualifying performance in over a year and says a strong warm-up session is needed to see if further changes have worked.

“We changed the set-up after practice and going into qualifying, and it was just a lot worse,” he added. “We’ve never been so far off. It’s all getting very close in the championship and it’s just the wrong time for it to happen.

“We’ll make it better in warm-up, I’m sure, but we’ll just have to see how it goes in the race.”

Gary Paffett has been excluded from qualifying for the Oschersleben DTM race after his HWA Mercedes squad were adjudged to have broken parc ferme rules during the session.

A member of his pit crew was found to have contravened the regulations by checking the tyre pressures on the car following the end of Q1.

Under the DTM’s sporting regulations, technical interference with cars is prohibited while parc ferme conditions are active. Paffett was also fined 1000 euros for the breach.

Paffett was due to start from the back row anyway, having failed to complete a flying lap in qualifying due to a misfire.

Miguel Molina claimed his first DTM pole position by the narrowest of margins at Oschersleben as he beat Bruno Spengler by just a thousandth of a second.

The Spaniard, who has not even scored a point this season, had never previously qualified higher than fourth, but took his old-spec Abt Audi to the top spot in a time of 1m22.317s.

Spengler, the last man to set a time in Q4, was slower than Molina in sector one, but pulled back almost all the time in the remainder of the lap and only just missed out.

Behind them Oliver Jarvis and Mattias Ekstrom made it three Abt cars in the top four, the latter giving himself too much work to do after a poor opening sector in Q4.

Spengler sensationally went quickest in Q3, despite the Canadian suffering a misfire during that part of the session. The problem was rectified for Q4.

The 1m21.801s lap was 0.009s quicker than Molina, while the Spaniard’s Abt team-mate Timo Scheider, HWA men Jamie Green and Ralf Schumacher and Rosberg Audi driver Edoardo Mortara all missed out on Q4.

The quartet filled the next four positions while the top 10 was completed by Maro Engel’s Mucke Mercedes and the off-form Mike Rockenfeller (Abt), both ahead of practice pacesetter Filipe Albuquerque.

Championship leader Martin Tomczyk had a dreadful afternoon and failed to make it into Q2, the championship leader only 15th quickest in Q1 and missing out on a spot in the next part of the session by over 0.1s.

He will be promoted one place to 14th on the grid, however, when a five-place grid penalty is applied to Persson Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris – 13th quickest – for overtaking under yellow flags at Brands Hatch last time out.

There was even worse news for Gary Paffett, whose miserable season continued as he failed to complete a flying lap due to a misfire on the engine of his HWA Mercedes that was attributed to a problem with the ignition and electrics by Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug. He will start 17th.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m22.371s

 2.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m22.372s  + 0.001s

 3.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m22.517s  + 0.146s

 4.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m22.687s  + 0.316s

 5.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m22.090s  Q3

 6.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m22.111s  Q3

 7.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m22.149s  Q3

 8.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m22.818s  Q3

 9.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m22.333s  Q2

10.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m22.339s  Q2

11.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m22.348s  Q2

12.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m22.426s  Q2

13.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m22.507s  Q2

14.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m22.518s  Q2

15.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m22.978s  Q1

16.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m23.275s  Q1

17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m23.314s  Q1

18.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes                 Q1

Filipe Albuquerque continued his excellent practice form at Oschersleben by setting the pace in the second session for this weekend’s DTM race at the circuit.

The Portuguese driver’s 1m22.306s lap with half an hour to go was 0.056s faster than the similar old-spec Audi of Miguel Molina, and allowed the Team Rosberg driver to stay on top, ahead of the Abt man, for the rest of the session.

Bruno Spengler was the best of the Mercedes drivers, and the quickest of those in newer-spec machinery. The HWA man was third, 0.199s off Albuquerque’s pace, but significantly five places ahead of championship leader Martin Tomczyk.

Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider were fourth and sixth quickest in their Abt Audis, the pair sandwiching Ralf Schumacher’s HWA Mercedes, despite both having offs at Turn 1 during the session.

Oliver Jarvis (Abt Audi), Tomczyk (Phoenix Audi) and Gary Paffett (HWA Mercedes) were next up, while Mattias Ekstrom completed the top 10.

Abt driver Ekstrom, like his team-mates Rockenfeller and Scheider, went off at Turn 1 after outbraking himself. Each of the trio was able to make a U-turn on the small patch of asphalt run-off without reaching the gravel trap.

Grand prix winner David Coulthard was the best of the old-spec Mercedes drivers in 11th for Mucke while Jamie Green (HWA) and Albuquerque’s team-mate Edoardo Mortara were lower than usual in 13th and 15th.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap

 1.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m22.306s

 2.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m22.362s  + 0.056s

 3.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m22.505s  + 0.199s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m22.517s  + 0.211s

 5.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m22.525s  + 0.219s

 6.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m22.625s  + 0.319s

 7.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m22.636s  + 0.330s

 8.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m22.674s  + 0.368s

 9.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m22.768s  + 0.462s

10.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m22.774s  + 0.468s

11.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m22.817s  + 0.511s

12.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m22.825s  + 0.519s

13.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m22.901s  + 0.595s

14.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m22.919s  + 0.613s

15.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi      1m23.075s  + 0.769s

16.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m23.091s  + 0.785s

17.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m23.569s  + 1.263s

18.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m23.611s  + 1.305s