Practice: Reuter on top again

The former ITC champion, who hasn't won a DTM race since 2000, lapped in 1m20.671s in his Opel Vectra GTS, just 0.097sec quicker than fellow multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen. Sunday will mark the first DTM event at Oschersleben since 2001.

"I'm very confident going into qualifying," said Reuter. "The co-operation with my new race engineer, Martijn Meijs, is working very well. He knows what I expect from the car perfectly."

Martin Tomczyk was third fastest for Audi, ahead of the second Opel of Timo Scheider. Series leader Mattias Ekstrom led the title protagonists, but admitted: "I would have thought it would be easier for us here."

Form-man Gary Paffett was sixth for Mercedes, ahead of fellow Brit Peter Dumbreck (Opel). Christijan Albers was next up for Mercedes, ahead of Marcel Fassler (Opel) and Bernd Schneider (Mercedes).

The hot conditions are making life tough at Oschersleben, with cars regularly visiting the run-off areas. The most regular off-roader, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, was 11th quickest in his Opel, while Merc's ex-F1 ace Jean Alesi was down in 13th. Opel's Laurent Aiello was 16th after his front-right wheel fell off for the second race weekend on the trot.