Eng tops opening day of DTM testing for BMW

Eng posted a time of 1m19.204s during his third run in the three-and-a-half hour morning session to eclipse Mike Rockenfeller’s previous effort of 1m19.359s.

The Austrian’s lap remained unbeaten throughout the day, although Audi driver Robin Frijns ended up within 0.010s of the pace with his quickest time of 1m19.214s.

WRT Audi driver Ferdinand Habsburg finished just over a tenth behind in third, while Rockenfeller was shuffled down to fourth in the final order.

Reigning champion Rene Rast made it four Audis in the top five, while Sheldon van der Linde was BMW’s second quickest runner in sixth, 0.307s off the pace of stablemate Eng.

Marco Wittmann was three tenths further back in seventh after spending several hours in the pits with an unknown issue, while Fabio Scherer was classified eighth in the second of the two WRT Audis.

Formula 1 convert Robert Kubica propped up the timesheets in the ART-run BMW, finishing 1.315s off the pace in his first DTM outing since last December’s rookie test at Jerez.

Most of the day’s quickest laps were set in the morning, with Rockenfeller topping the charts in afternoon with a time of 1m19.836s.

Audi led the mileage count on the opening day of the test, with the three cars from the Ingolstadt-based brand completing 585 laps in total compared to the 383 laps by BMW runners.

Nearly a third of BMW's tally came courtesy of Kubica, who completed a total of 115 laps as he gets accustomed to the M4 ahead of his series debut at Spa-Francorchamps in August.

Additional reporting by Sven Haidinger

Morning results:

1. Philipp Eng (BMW M4) 1:19.204 (60 laps)

2. Robin Frijns (Audi RS 5) 1:19.214 (86 laps)

3. Ferdinand Habsburg (Audi) 1:19.311 (85 laps)

4.Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) 1: 19.359 (86 laps)

5. Rene Rast (Audi) 1:19.406 (79 laps)

6.Sheldon van der Linde (BMW) 1:19.511 (63 laps)

7. Marco Wittmann (BMW) 1:19.890 (52 laps)

8. Fabio Scherer (Audi) 1:20.117 (49 laps)

9. Robert Kubica (BMW M4) 1:20.519 (53 laps)

Result afternoon:

1.Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) 1:19.836 (112 laps)

2. Philipp Eng (BMW) 1:19,897 (100 laps)

3. Ferdinand Habsburg (Audi) 1:19.938 (78 laps)

4. Sheldon van der Linde (BMW) 1:20.111 (95 laps)

5. Fabio Scherer (Audi) 1:20.602 (76 laps)

6. Marco Wittmann (BMW) 1:20.674 (13 laps)

7. Robert Kubica (BMW) 1:20.920 (70 laps)

8. Rene Rast (Audi) 1:20.946 (115 laps)

9. Robin Frijns (Audi) 1:21.206 (107 laps)