BMW’s Philipp Eng topped the times at the end of the first day of the official pre-season DTM tests at the Nürburgring, edging out Audi’s Robin Frijns by just 0.011 seconds in the morning session.
All of the top times came in the morning session, when drivers completed fewer laps than in the afternoon. Eng, who was running in Jonathan Aberdein’s BMW, lapped the shorter configuration in 1 minute 19.203 seconds – which was over four tenths faster than René Rast’s pole position time from last season (1:19.642).
Frijns headed up four Audi drivers in the times, with marque newcomer Ferdinand von Habsburg in third, 0.108 seconds adrift of the pace, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller in fourth (0.156 seconds off) and Rast in fifth (0.203 seconds from the top).
South African Sheldon van der Linde, entering into his second season in the DTM, was sixth in his BMW, ahead of Marco Wittmann in seventh and series newcomer Fabio Scherer in eighth.
Former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica was ninth, the slowest of the day’s competitors, with the pole lapping his BMW 1.316 seconds off the pace.
Audi drivers completed much more running than BMW drivers in the session, with the Ingolstadt marques drivers completing 585 laps whilst the Munich marques pilots only managed 383 laps. Rockenfeller completed the most laps, with 198 tours.
The main trouble of the day came for Wittmann who spent several hours in the pitlane with an issue, resulting in the German only completing 13 laps in the afternoon.
The afternoon session, which saw no improvements for any driver over the morning session, was topped by Rockenfeller with a time of 1:19.836 seconds ahead of Eng in second, 0.061 seconds adrift.
Combined morning and afternoon results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 160 | 1:19.203 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 193 | 1:19.214 | 0.011 |
| 3 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 163 | 1:19.311 | 0.108 |
| 4 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 198 | 1:19.359 | 0.156 |
| 5 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 194 | 1:19.406 | 0.203 |
| 6 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 158 | 1:19.511 | 0.308 |
| 7 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 65 | 1:19.890 | 0.687 |
| 8 | 13 | Fabio SCHERER |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 125 | 1:20.117 | 0.914 |
| 9 | 8 | Robert KUBICA |  |
BMW Team ART | BMW M4 DTM | 123 | 1:20.519 | 1.316 |