Nurburgring DTM: Filipe Albuquerque tops practice for Audi

The Team Rosberg driver spent 20 minutes at the head of the pack during the middle of the hour-and-a-half-long session thanks to a 1m23.656s lap.

But after being knocked back to the tail end of the top five, he produced a 1m23.491s marker with two minutes remaining to retake the top spot.

His lap - half a second inside last year's best qualifying time - put him just three thousandths of a second ahead of Audi stablemate and championship leader Mike Rockenfeller.

Phoenix driver Rockenfeller had been the man deposed by Albuquerque, but then set his own personal best time on his final flying lap.

Marco Wittmann was strong throughout the session and ended up as the best BMW driver in third for the MTEK team.

Abt Sportsline drivers Adrien Tambay and Timo Scheider were fourth and sixth, sandwiching the Phoenix car of Miguel Molina.

Scheider's time came in spite of an early electrical problem that caused his on-board fire extinguisher to go off. Several minutes were lost as the spillage was cleaned up and the bottle re-filled.

Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekstrom made it seven Audis in the top eight; the latter recovering from a spin while exiting the final corner just beyond the hour mark.

Champion Bruno Spengler, who won at the Nurburgring last year, lay 16th with a few minutes left, but improved on successive laps to end up ninth.

Christian Vietoris was the best of the Mercedes drivers in 11th while his HWA team-mate Gary Paffett was 16th.

This weekend's DTM race at the Nurburgring will be streamed live on AUTOSPORT.com. To see the title fight continue between Mike Rockenfeller and Bruno Spengler, log on from 12:15 UK time on Sunday.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time       Gap
 1.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi    1m23.491s
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi    1m23.494s  +0.003s
 3.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW        1m23.554s  +0.063s
 4.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi        1m23.600s  +0.109s
 5.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi    1m23.645s  +0.154s
 6.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi        1m23.696s  +0.205s
 7.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi    1m23.711s  +0.220s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi        1m23.719s  +0.228s
 9.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW   1m23.797s  +0.306s
10.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW         1m23.823s  +0.332s
11.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes    1m23.827s  +0.336s
12.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW         1m23.834s  +0.343s
13.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes    1m23.848s  +0.357s
14.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes  1m23.899s  +0.408s
15.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes  1m23.944s  +0.453s
16.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes    1m23.956s  +0.465s
17.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi        1m23.979s  +0.488s
18.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW         1m24.091s  +0.600s
19.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW   1m24.102s  +0.611s
20.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW        1m24.124s  +0.633s
21.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW         1m24.314s  +0.823s
22.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes    1m24.858s  +1.367s