Albuquerque fastest as Audi dominates opening DTM practice at the Nurburgring

The Portuguese driver set his best time of 1m25.007s in the dying minutes of the session to put his Team Rosberg car on top of the timesheets and knock Mike Rockenfeller's Phoenix A5 down to second by 0.539s.

Abt driver Mattias Ekstrom was able to squeeze in between Albuquerque and Rockenfeller before the end too, his best lap 0.390s adrift of the benchmark.

Jamie Green was the only non-Audi interloper in the top six; the HWA Mercedes man 0.600s off the pace in fourth, while Miguel Molina - who was fastest at the midway point - was next up for Phoenix.

Adrien Tambay was sixth-fastest for Abt with championship leader Gary Paffett right behind him, the HWA driver having leapt up 10 spots with a fine lap late-on.

Albuquerque's team-mate Edoardo Mortara was next up, while Dirk Werner was BMW's best representative in ninth in his Schnitzer car.

Ralf Schumacher completed the top 10 for HWA while BMW's best-placed drivers in the points, Bruno Spengler and Martin Tomczyk, were 12th and 16th.

British drivers Andy Priaulx (RBM BMW), Susie Wolff (Persson Mercedes) and David Coulthard (Mucke Mercedes) were 14th, 17th and 20th respectively.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m25.007s
 2.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m25.397s  + 0.390s
 3.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      1m25.546s  + 0.539s
 4.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m25.607s  + 0.600s
 5.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m25.735s  + 0.728s
 6.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m25.740s  + 0.733s
 7.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m25.783s  + 0.776s
 8.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1m25.806s  + 0.799s
 9.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m25.879s  + 0.872s
10.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m25.906s  + 0.899s
11.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m25.908s  + 0.901s
12.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m25.950s  + 0.943s
13.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m25.988s  + 0.981s
14.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m26.001s  + 0.994s
15.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m26.082s  + 1.075s
16.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m26.157s  + 1.150s
17.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  1m26.184s  + 1.177s
18.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    1m26.314s  + 1.307s
19.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m26.321s  + 1.314s
20.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m26.327s  + 1.320s
21.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m26.671s  + 1.664s
22.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m26.703s  + 1.696s