With glorious sunshine enveloping the Brandenburg region, Audi Sport Team Abt’s Nico Müller stole top honours at the Laustizring, after a frantic 30-minute second practice session ahead of race one qualifying.
The Swiss ace would post a 1:17.386 around the 3.476-km circuit, which is an astonishing 0.020 seconds off the qualifying lap record from stablemate Jamie Green.
First practice pace setter Lucas Auer was just 0.011 seconds behind the Audi driver, with two-time champion Mattias Ekström completing a tightly packed top three.
Rapid track evolution over the first ten minutes of the session saw Auer leading the way, before Maximilian Götz’s run in his Mercedes came to a grinding halt on the back straight approach to turn 6.
Race Control initially opted for a Slow Zone 2 deployment, before the red flag was brandished with just under 19 minutes left, whilst the marshals recovered Götz’s car.
Even with the clock still running, the track was given the green light two minutes later. Shortly after, Mike Rockenfeller was briefly leading an Audi 1-2-3 ahead of Miguel Molina and Ekström, before Christian Vietoris and Gary Paffett went third and fifth fastest respectively.
It was a Mücke Motorsport 1-2 in the final moments of the session, with Auer leading Vietoris, before Müller’s final effort was enough to snatch top spot with two minutes remaining.
Vietoris ended up fourth ahead of Molina and Rockenfeller, having bettered his position of sixth from the first practice session.
Mercedes would have the strongest contingent in the top ten, as Esteban Ocon, Gary Paffett and Daniel Juncadella would make it five C63 AMG DTM, whilst Marco Wittmann was the best of the BMWs as the only driver from Munich in the top ten.
The weather is set to continue, with a possibility of lap records being broken from this morning’s first qualifying onwards.
Qualifying for race one starts at 10.30 local time (09:30 British Summer Time), lasting for 20 minutes.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:17.386 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 15 | 1:17.395 | 0.009 |
| 3 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 16 | 1:17.433 | 0.047 |
| 4 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 15 | 1:17.437 | 0.051 |
| 5 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 14 | 1:17.488 | 0.102 |
| 6 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 16 | 1:17.516 | 0.130 |
| 7 | 34 | Esteban OCON |  |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 14 | 1:17.547 | 0.161 |
| 8 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 13 | 1:17.636 | 0.250 |
| 9 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 1:17.696 | 0.310 |
| 10 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:17.705 | 0.319 |
| 11 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 14 | 1:17.753 | 0.367 |
| 12 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 13 | 1:17.798 | 0.412 |
| 13 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 17 | 1:17.801 | 0.415 |
| 14 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 15 | 1:17.805 | 0.419 |
| 15 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 16 | 1:17.857 | 0.471 |
| 16 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 15 | 1:17.971 | 0.585 |
| 17 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 15 | 1:18.019 | 0.633 |
| 18 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 15 | 1:18.068 | 0.682 |
| 19 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 15 | 1:18.089 | 0.703 |
| 20 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 13 | 1:18.114 | 0.728 |
| 21 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 15 | 1:18.128 | 0.742 |
| 22 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | 1:18.391 | 1.005 |
| 23 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | 1:18.396 | 1.010 |
| 24 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 4 | 1:19.944 | 2.558 |