Rockenfeller tops wet practice
Mike Rockenfeller led an Audi lock-out of the top six places in a wet DTM free practice session at Hockenheim
The Audi driver had a couple of spells at the top in the final half an hour of the session, as conditions improved. He traded places with Timo Scheider for a little while, before securing first place by 0.001 seconds with 12 minutes to go.
There was a flurry of activity in the last five minutes as all of the cars that had not suffered incidents went out on track, but a return of the rain prevented anyone else from improving.
That left Scheider in second place ahead of Martin Tomcyk, who earned a five-place grid drop for Sunday's race after he set a personal best sector time under yellow flags.
Miguel Molina was next up in fourth. The Spaniard had been on course to go fastest just after Rockenfeller set his best lap, but he made a mistake in the final sector.
Behind Mattias Ekstrom and Oliver Jarvis, Gary Paffett was the best of the Mercedes in seventh, as most of the C-class drivers missed the best of the conditions.
But the main interest at that end of the pitlane surrounded championship leader Bruno Spengler, who crashed with half an hour to go at the penultimate corner.
The Canadian had been in the top 10 at the time, but even then he was more than half a second adrift of his closest title challenger Paul di Resta, who had shone in the worst of the conditions early on.
Spengler was pulled out of the tyre wall and returned to the pits with only minor damage, but he was unable to get back on track before the end of the session.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m36.999s 2. Timo Scheider Audi 1m37.000s + 0.001s 3. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m37.060s + 0.061s 4. Miguel Molina Audi 1m37.523s + 0.524s 5. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m37.914s + 0.915s 6. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m37.956s + 0.957s 7. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m37.999s + 1.000s 8. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m38.247s + 1.248s 9. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m38.337s + 1.338s 10. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.517s + 1.518s 11. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m38.520s + 1.521s 12. Katherine Legge Audi 1m38.527s + 1.528s 13. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m38.705s + 1.706s 14. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m38.960s + 1.961s 15. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m39.020s + 2.021s 16. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m39.208s + 2.209s 17. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m39.472s + 2.473s 18. Cong Fu Cheng Mercedes 1m40.882s + 3.883s
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