After a successful rollout yesterday, R-Motorsport completed the first proper day of testing with the new Aston Martin Vantage DTM at Jerez, with Paul di Resta at the wheel.

138 days have barely gone by since team principal Dr. Florian Kamelger announced his squad would bring Aston Martin to the DTM. The focus of the first day was to gain data and information about the new turbo engine, developed Vynamic GmbH, a joint venture between R-Motorsport’s parent company AF Racing AG, and HWA AG, former partners of Mercedes-AMG in the series.

The new four-cylinder, two-litre engine was already running at HWA’s bank before the end of the season, but this is the first time it has been operational on track.

“At this early stage of our test and development programme, the team are keen to learn as much as possible about the engine,” said di Resta.

“Today, we had an insightful day when we gathered valuable data regarding the new power unit and turbocharger despite a longer break to make adjustments and solve problems. Our brand-new turbo engine still needs a lot of running to find out how we can further improve its driveability and cooling.”

Di Resta will again be behind the wheel tomorrow, with newcomers Jake Dennis and Ferdinand Habsburg taking over on Thursday and Friday respectively.

“There is still a lot of development work to be done, as the Aston Martin Vantage DTM car was developed and built in the record time of only 90 days,” added team principal Dr Florian Kamelger. “Consequently, the main target of our test today was to learn more about our car and especially about the behaviour of its turbo engine.”

The first joint official pre-season test will continue at Jerez until Friday, with R-Motorsport joined by BMW Motorsport and Audi Sport.