Mike Rockenfeller was fastest for the first Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters free practice at the Lausitzring, as the Audi Sport driver led an Ingolstadt 1-2, ahead of Sweden’s Mattias Ekström.
The 2013 champion posted the fastest time of a 1:17.278, just 0.097 seconds ahead of his stablemate, with Mercedes’ Robert Wickens bringing his C63 AMG Coupé into the top three.
The top three were separated by just over two tenths of a second, whilst Audi dominated proceedings, with all of their RS5 DTMs in the top half of the time sheets.
Last year’s race one winner and current points leader Lucas Auer was fifth fastest behind Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green, who took the first double win at the Brandenburg circuit in 2015.
Loïc Duval was eighth fastest in his Audi, over a very tightly-packed field, with all 18 drivers split by 1.025 seconds, as the Mercedes pair of Maro Engel and Edoardo Mortara were the slowest of all runners.
Defending champion Marco Wittmann was 13th fastest, with all six M4 DTMs ending up in the lower half of the field, led by Britain’s Tom Blomqvist in 11th.
Gary Paffett, who takes his 150th DTM start this weekend, rounded out the top ten, behind Scotland’s Paul Di Resta.
Free Practice 2 gets underway tomorrow morning (Saturday, May 20th) at 0840 local time, lasting for 30 minutes.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 26 | 1:17.278 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 22 | 1:17.375 | 0.097 |
| 3 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 22 | 1:17.489 | 0.211 |
| 4 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 22 | 1:17.547 | 0.269 |
| 5 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 24 | 1:17.606 | 0.328 |
| 6 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 1:17.734 | 0.456 |
| 7 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 1:17.900 | 0.622 |
| 8 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 1:17.974 | 0.696 |
| 9 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 1:18.016 | 0.738 |
| 10 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 1:18.023 | 0.745 |
| 11 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 1:18.034 | 0.756 |
| 12 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 19 | 1:18.068 | 0.790 |
| 13 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:18.073 | 0.795 |
| 14 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 1:18.178 | 0.900 |
| 15 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 22 | 1:18.195 | 0.917 |
| 16 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:18.225 | 0.947 |
| 17 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 1:18.235 | 0.957 |
| 18 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 20 | 1:18.303 | 1.025 |