Nico Rosberg wins the selfie wars.

Selfies while driving Fangio's 1955 Mercedes W196 at Hockenheim? Win.    No word if he will get fined from the FIA for unsafe driving now.

BMW wins DTM season debut at Hockenheim

Marco Wittmann drove the BWM  M4 DTM to a win in the 2014 season opener in Hickenheim today.   Wittman, who started from P2 on the grid, put a decisive move on Adrien Tambay's Audi at the hairpin during the opening laps and was untouchable for the rest of the race.

Second place went to Mattias Ekström ahead of Tambay in third.     Good day for BMW with six cars in the top ten.   Not a great one for Mercedes with no cars in the top ten but they will have performance weight to help them from the next race.

The opening laps of the race were fun, one great advantage to having fenders is that you can bang them and that's a DTM tradition. Traditional too is the lack of any "eco" hybrid components though DRS is now part of the rules.

DTM does not allow embedding of its race videos but you can go watch the on HERE on YouTube  which should allow you to rewind the "live" event.

1. Marco Wittmann        BMW
2. Mattias Eckström       AUDI
3. Adrien Tambay          AUDI
4. Mike Rockenfeller     AUDI
5. Timo Glock                BMW
6. Bruno Spengler          BMW
7. Martin Tomczyk         BMW
8.Augusto Farfus            BMW
9. Timo Scheider            AUDI
10. Joey Hand                 BMW

Kevin Estre Show.

You'll remember Kevin Estre was on the 2012 Rolex 24 Axis of Oversteer Porsche team at Daytona.

This season Kevin is competing in German Porsche Cup for Attempto Racing and did so well at the season opener last week in Hockenheim, Porsche made the clip just for him, quite an honor.

Be sure to notice the correct line through turn 1 in a 911...

Allez Kevin!

Porsche Motor-Cam

certainly puts a different perspective on Carrera Cup racing...in case you ever wondered what your life as a Porsche racing differential might be like.

Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland 2012, Full races

Thank you Porsche for making these available in their entirety. Please do the same for US Porsche cup!

(Hat tip Sean Edwards)

2012 DTM starts at Hockenheim

Truth be told, the race was a bit of a snoozer after the first few laps. BMW had a pretty horrid debut also because it must be an DTM rookie initiation rite that every new car and driver must get hit by more experienced competitors!

Check out the MEGA desktop friendly gallery after the jump

Results - 40 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1h04m37.615s
 2.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes          + 4.709s
 3.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             + 19.434s
 4.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         + 25.774s
 5.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi         + 27.834s
 6.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW              + 28.435s
 7.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes         + 39.948s
 8.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes       + 43.306s
 9.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         + 46.079s
10.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi         + 46.614s
11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         + 47.253s
12.  Susie Wolff         Mucke Mercedes       + 51.971s
13.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW            + 1m08.628s
14.  Robert Wickens      Persson Mercedes   + 1m09.027s
15.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW            + 1m09.556s
16.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           + 1m16.123s
17.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW          + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes       38 laps
     Timo Scheider       Abt Audi               13 laps
     Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW                 4 laps
     Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi                3 laps
     Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW           3 laps

Race craft.

If you are reading Axis, Sean Edwards needs no introduction.
in this clip, on a half damp, half wet Hockenheim he fights from P14 to P3. Check out how, as he's passing for P6 (about 6:30), he positions his car just before turn 1 so that Alzen cannot get a good line on entry and ends up wide and defenseless on exit. Brilliant.

Who needs wings?

Flashback: 1993 Porsche Carrera Cup final, Hockenheim.

Uwe Alzen in the blue car and Altfrid Hager are duking it out in their 964 Carrera Cup cars with blatant disregard for the edges of the track...

Don't miss Hager's hand gestures, priceless.


(photo: PasionPorsche.com)

home

Porsche Supercup Germany

While you wait for the dreaded Fox broadcast of the F1 GrandPrix, have a look at the Supercup race. Always nice to see how a relatively normal car goes around the same track before you watch F1 around those same corners.

Porsche must do a brisk business in body panels...

Porsche Supercup Gallery


end of post

German GP Free Practice: Alonso fastest, Hamilton Crashes

Drivers had a hell of time with the wet/dry track conditions in morning practice, Massa spun five times but he did manage to keep it off the barriers and clock the second fastest time in the morning and the third in the afternoon.

Didn't quite work out that way for Lewis Hamilton, a tankslapper tossed him in the barriers tearing a couple of corners off his Mclaren. Car was only rebuilt in time for him to take to the track in the final ten minutes or so of the afternoon session, meaning he missed a lot of setup time. He did manage a 7th place time well ahead of Jenson Button, who may or may not have been engaged in a different program.

Top of the list was Alonso, showing he and the car, possibly sporting a new diffuser, have the pace. Now if they can keep the mistakes and the bad luck away...

Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:16.265            35
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:16.294  + 0.029   26
 3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:16.438  + 0.173   37
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:16.585  + 0.320   40
 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:16.827  + 0.562   32
 6.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:16.971  + 0.706   20
 7.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:17.004  + 0.739   10
 8.  Kubica         Renault                 1:17.009  + 0.744   37
 9.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:17.056  + 0.791   37
10.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:17.204  + 0.939   44
11.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:17.336  + 1.071   44
12.  Petrov         Renault                 1:17.547  + 1.282   35
13.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:17.573  + 1.308   39
14.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:17.701  + 1.436   38
15.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:17.739  + 1.474   36
16.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:17.871  + 1.606   33
17.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:18.147  + 1.882   45
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:19.327  + 3.062   48
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:19.553  + 3.288   30
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:20.008  + 3.743   34
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:20.106  + 3.841   31
22.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:20.377  + 4.112   37
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:21.988  + 5.723   37
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:23.066  + 6.801   37

All Timing Unofficial

end of post