BMW’s Bruno Spengler was the quickest driver in free practice ahead of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Master’s first visit to the Moscow Raceway in Russia, topping the times by 0.041 seconds over Audi’s Mattias Ekström.
Click here for the full free practice times.
Reigning champion Spengler posted a time of 58.666 seconds in the final few minutes of the session to take the top spot. The Canadian had been inside the top ten for most of the 1 hour 30 minute session. Ekström had been the fastest driver with ten minutes to go, and the Swede headed up a sextet of Audi drivers.
Filipe Albuquerque was third fastest, ahead of Miguel Molina, Edoardo Mortara, Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider. Audi drivers had been on top of the timesheets throughout the session before Spengler pipped them all at the very end. Molina, in particular, had been on top of the time sheets for the longest in the second half of the session.
Spengler’s team-mate Dirk Werner was eighth fastest for BMW Team Schnitzer. Joey Hand and Robert Wickens completed the top ten in their RBM BMW and HWA Mercedes respectively. Wickens was the only driver to spin into the gravel when the Canadian suffered a spin with fifteen minutes to go, his rear wheels just beeching him in the edge of the gravel trap.
Adrien Tambay and Jamie Green were 11th and 12th for Audi, despite the latter having been on top of the times early on in the session.
Pascal Wehrlein was the second-fastest Mercedes driver down in 13th, with the marque’s leading contender in the championship, Christian Vietoris, down in 20th overall, 0.740 seconds off the pace.
Qualifying takes place at 16:40 CEST (15:40 BST; 18:40 MST).