Norisring: Old guard set the pace

The former champion, who jointly leads this year's title chase with Opel's Manuel Reuter, pushed to the limit on the damp track to set his best lap of 52.647 seconds with just ten minutes of practice remaining. He could not be challenged once rain started falling immediately after his run.

Ludwig was just 0.065 seconds behind as the Mercedes duo proved too strong for their Opel and Audi rivals.

Michael Bartels, who threw away a good result at Oschersleben in the last round with a spin, was third fastest for Opel, ahead of team-mate Stefano Modena and Mercedes' Thomas Jager.

The performance of the so-far uncompetitive Audis was one of the surprises of the session as the TTs proved well-suited to the high-speed Norisring track.

Reigning BTCC champion Laurent Aiello was second fastest with just 20 minutes of practice remaining, despite two spins, but dropped to 11th. Team-mate Kris Nissen was the leading Audi driver in 10th.

The British duo of Peter Dumbreck and Darren Turner ended up eighth and ninth respectively in their Mercedes, just behind Reuter's Opel.