DTM premiere for Maxime Martin, who was placed fourth in the ADAC GT Masters. During a two-day session near the Spanish town of Aragón, the winner of five ADAC GT Masters races had a test drive in a BMW M3 DTM for the first time this week. Martin was joined by Swiss GP2 driver Fabio Leimer, who was also making his DTM cockpit debut.

"We welcomed two new faces into the cockpit of the BMW M3 DTM at our test in Aragón, in the form of Fabio Leimer and Maxime Martin," said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. "Both did a good job. We wanted to give them the opportunity to familiarise themselves with a DTM car. Both Fabio and Maxime did that very well – and they were soon driving to a high standard."

Martin, Leimer, BMW test driver Marco Wittmann and DTM driver Joey Hand took advantage of the good conditions in Aragón to complete a comprehensive test programme. In total, the two cars covered over 2.500 kilometres on Wednesday and Thursday. Wittmann drove 754 kilometres on the first test day alone – more than the BMW M3 DTM had ever completed before on one single test day.

Leimer and Martin soon found their feet and spent a lot of time out on the track near Alcañiz. "That was an awesome experience for me. Everything was quite new, but I quickly developed a good feel for the car. The aerodynamics, weight and carbon brakes were the biggest differences. The DTM cars have an enormous amount of downforce and the light weight means you can brake much, much later than in a GT car. I already knew the circuit, which helped me a bit as I was getting used to the car."