BMW’s Marco Wittmann was fastest in free practice for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Hockenheimring, posting the top time of 1:32.654 late on in the hour and a half session.
Wittmann posted the top time in the closing minutes of the session, beating Audi’s Miguel Molina by less than a tenth of a second. Adrien Tambay, who had been fastest with 20 minutes remaining, improved his time in the closing minutes having slipped down the order as other improved.
Nico Müller was an impressive fourth fastest on his DTM début weekend, ahead of BMW’s Augusto Farfus. Edoardo Mortara was sixth fastest in the second Team Abt Audi, with the Italian having topped the times for the first 45 minutes of the session.
António Félix da Costa was seventh fastest, with the Portugese racer also making his début this weekend.
Audi’s Jamie Green, reigning champion Mike Rockenfeller and BMW’s Joey Hand completed the top ten.
The session proved to be a difficult one for Mercedes-Benz, with Pascal Wehrlein the only driver for the manufacturer within a second of the pace in 13th. All other Mercedes drivers were more than a second off the pace, with six of its C-Coupé’s Filling the bottom six places on the timesheet.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 23 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 30 | 1:32.654 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 8 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 1:32.706 | 0.052 |
| 3 | 16 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 33 | 1:32.855 | 0.201 |
| 4 | 22 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 1:32.915 | 0.261 |
| 5 | 3 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 28 | 1:32.998 | 0.344 |
| 6 | 15 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 24 | 1:33.014 | 0.360 |
| 7 | 18 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 1:33.056 | 0.402 |
| 8 | 21 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 35 | 1:33.057 | 0.403 |
| 9 | 1 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 1:33.072 | 0.418 |
| 10 | 4 | Joey HAND |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 31 | 1:33.160 | 0.506 |