BMW’s Marco Wittmann posted the fastest time in a thrice red-flagged second Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) practice session at the Hockenheimring, ahead of stable-mate Joey Hand and Audi’s Miguel Molina.
Wittmann rose to the top of the times in the final three minutes of the hour-long session, having been outside the top ten early on. As lap times improved in the second half of the session, Wittmann was able to go top with an effort of 1:33.585, some 1.3 seconds off the pole position time achieved earlier in the year.
Hand was just 0.105 seconds behind Wittmann, with 21 of the 23 cars in the field covered by less than a second.
The session had to be red-flagged on three occasions, two of which were caused by Russian Vitaly Petrov. The Mercedes’ driver first stopped on the circuit after around 20 minutes when his left-rear wheel detached from his car. After being recovered, Petrov then went off at the Sachs-Kurve with 20 minutes remaining. The final red flag was caused when Audi’s Jamie Green, who ended the session in 21st, also went off into the gravel with just over ten minutes to go.
Behind Abt Audi’s Molina was Phoenix Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller, who had been in the top five throughout the session. From fourth to tenth BMW and Audi drivers alternated positions, with each manufacturer having five cars inside the top ten.
MTEK BMW’s António Félix da Costa continued his strong pace from first practice and was fifth, ahead of Abt Audi’s Adrien Tambay, who was sixth after having topped the session throughout the first half hour.
Seventh and eighth went to BMW’s Timo Glock and Audi’s Nico Müller, with Bruno Spengler and early morning pace setter Mattias Ekström completing the top ten for BMW and Audi respectively.
Gary Paffett was the top Mercedes driver in 11th, just over half a second off the pace, after the Brit improved his time from 20th position in the final minutes of the session.
Qualifying takes place at 14:45 CEST (13:45 BST).
Top ten times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 23 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:33.585 | |
| 2 | 4 | Joey HAND |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | 1:33.690 | 0.105 |
| 3 | 8 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 24 | 1:33.771 | 0.186 |
| 4 | 1 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 1:33.823 | 0.238 |
| 5 | 18 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:33.875 | 0.290 |
| 6 | 16 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 1:33.913 | 0.328 |
| 7 | 17 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:34.007 | 0.422 |
| 8 | 22 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 23 | 1:34.008 | 0.423 |
| 9 | 9 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 1:34.010 | 0.425 |
| 10 | 7 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 1:34.046 | 0.461 |