Audi’s Nico Müller emerged as the fastest driver from a wet second practice session for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Moscow Raceway, improving twice in the final minutes to take the top spot.
The times were almost 15 seconds slower than in Friday’s first practice, as the wet and unabating conditions made the circuit very tricky for the DTM cars.
Müller had held the top time early in the session with a lap of 1 minute 46.354 seconds, before being knocked off the top by Audi’s Jamie Green and then a spate of quick laps by the Mercedes of Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett.
But Müller as able to find some more time late in the session and improve his time twice in quick succession to go 0.267 seconds faster than Di Resta.
Audi’s Mattias Ekström improved late on to go third, ahead of Green, whilst Paffett was fifth fastest in his C63 DTM.
Robert Wickens, currently the leading Mercedes driver in the championship, was sixth, just over a second off the pace, ahead of Audi title rival Edoardo Mortara in seventh.
Newcomer Felix Rosenqvist was an impressive eighth fastest in just his second practice session at the wheel of his Mercedes C63, 1.126 seconds off the pace.
Mercedes’ Maximilian Götz and Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller completed the top ten, which notably featured not a single BMW driver.
The top BMW driver was Timo Glock in 11th, over one and a half seconds off the pace in a challenging session for the Munich manufacturer, which had got four cars into the top ten in the dry on Friday.
Bruno Spengler endured perhaps the most difficult session of all, going off into the Turn 3 gravel twice, his latter trip seeing him spin and have to be recovered, embarrassingly, by the Audi snatch vehicle. He ended the session with just the 21st best time, 2.389 seconds off the pace.
Qualifying for race one gets underway at 09:10 BST (10:10 CEST).
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 15 | 1:44.570 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 3 | Paul di RESTA |  |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 16 | 1:44.837 | 0.267 |
| 3 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 14 | 1:45.208 | 0.638 |
| 4 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 16 | 1:45.425 | 0.855 |
| 5 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 15 | 1:45.527 | 0.957 |
| 6 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 16 | 1:45.620 | 1.050 |
| 7 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 13 | 1:45.660 | 1.090 |
| 8 | 88 | Felix ROSENQVIST | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 16 | 1:45.696 | 1.126 |
| 9 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ |  |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 17 | 1:45.870 | 1.300 |
| 10 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 15 | 1:46.020 | 1.450 |
| 11 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 15 | 1:46.076 | 1.506 |
| 12 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | 1:46.080 | 1.510 |
| 13 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | 1:46.116 | 1.546 |
| 14 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 15 | 1:46.154 | 1.584 |
| 15 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 16 | 1:46.167 | 1.597 |
| 16 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 13 | 1:46.260 | 1.690 |
| 17 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 14 | 1:46.274 | 1.704 |
| 18 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 16 | 1:46.283 | 1.713 |
| 19 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 14 | 1:46.512 | 1.942 |
| 20 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 15 | 1:46.754 | 2.184 |
| 21 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 7 | 1:46.959 | 2.389 |
| 22 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 14 | 1:47.106 | 2.536 |
| 23 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 14 | 1:47.149 | 2.579 |
| 24 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 14 | 1:47.327 | 2.757 |