In the second DTM test, the autumn showed itself from its sunny side. In the morning, conditions were still changing, but it became friendlier later on. With temperatures ranging around 20 degrees, the track already dried off after a few minutes. The times from the morning session didn’t say very much, but Bruno Spengler set the fastest lap of the afternoon session and the fastest time of the day with his AMG-Mercedes C-Class, lapping the track within 1.34.992 minutes. With his Audi A4 DTM, Mattias Ekström closely followed the three times’ race winner. In his fastest lap, the Swede was 0.188 seconds down on Spengler’s best time. Mika Häkkinen, who had been fastest in the morning, was now third.
85 minutes - no particular incidents and business as usual: the second heat went as planned, drivers and teams completed their test programmes and did long-runs. Martin Tomczyk in fourth and Pierre Kaffer in fifth place were faster than the new DTM champion Bernd Schneider, who was sixth. Audi-driver Kaffer was also the fastest with year-old machinery with his 2005-spec Audi A4 DTM. The top 10 was completed by Jean Alesi in seventh, Stefan Mücke in eighth, Heinz-Harald Frentzen in ninth and Timo Scheider in tenth place.
After his accident early in the first test, Frank Stippler could join the action again in test 2. His Rosberg-team got his car in order again in time. He set a personal fastest lap time of 1.35.930 minutes.
Thed Björk was quick once more: in 15th place, the Swede was again the best-placed driver with a 2004-car. The battle of the DTM ladies was won by Susie Stoddart (18th place). On her fastest lap (1.36.812 minutes), the Scottish lady racer was 0.652 seconds faster than Vanina Ickx, who ranked in 20th position.
The Audi teams have prepared intensively for the season finale. Audi Sport Team Rosberg in particular was faced with an enormous amount of work - Frank Stippler’s A4 DTM had to be completely rebuilt within a week following his accident at the start at Le Mans.
