BMW’s championship leader Marco Wittmann was the fastest driver in first practice for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Moscow Raceway, posting a time of 1:29.101 in the closing minutes of the session to beat Audi’s Mattias Ekström.
Ekström had topped the times for the majority of the session before Wittmann posted a lap which was a significant 0.454 seconds faster in the final minutes of the session. Swede Ekström was second, having posted his time of 1:29.555 within the opening 20 minutes.
Team Rosberg’s Nico Müller was third fastest, with the Audi driver also improving his time in the closing minutes of the session having spent the first 40 minutes of the hour down in the low teens.
Miguel Molina was fourth in the second Abt Sportsline Audi ahead of BMW’s Maxime Martin in fifth, who had improved late on in the session.
BMW’s Augusto Farfus was sixth, ahead of reigning champion Mike Rockenfeller’s Audi in seventh.
Joey Hand made sure there were four BMWs in the top ten in eighth, ahead of the only Mercedes driver in the top ten of Pascal Wehrlein. Adrian Tambay completed the top ten in his Audi, having spent the first 50 minutes in the top three and then losing out to late improvements.
Vitaly Petrov was the second fastest Mercedes driver in 15th, having improved in the final seconds of the session. The Russian driver, competing at home for the first time, spent the majority of the session in last as Mercedes continued to struggle.
Jamie Green was the top Brit in 16th, with the Team Rosberg Audi driver 1.287 seconds off the pace.
Four Mercedes continued to prop up the timesheets, with former champions Gary Paffett and Paul di Resta in 22nd and 23rd respectively, more than 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 23 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 22 | 1:29.101 | |
| 2 | 7 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 26 | 1:29.555 | 0.454 |
| 3 | 22 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 1:29.559 | 0.458 |
| 4 | 8 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 27 | 1:29.613 | 0.512 |
| 5 | 24 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 24 | 1:29.616 | 0.515 |
| 6 | 3 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 27 | 1:29.710 | 0.609 |
| 7 | 1 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 27 | 1:29.735 | 0.634 |
| 8 | 4 | Joey HAND |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 28 | 1:29.780 | 0.679 |
| 9 | 25 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
gooix AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 25 | 1:29.821 | 0.720 |
| 10 | 16 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 1:29.875 | 0.774 |