Audi‘s Mike Rockenfeller came out on top in what became a rain hit free practice session for the DTM drivers at the Hungaroring.
The German was 0.160s quicker than his Audi team-mate Nico Müller, with reigning champion Marco Wittmann in his BMW M4 DTM claiming the third fastest time.
“At the end, heavy rain set in, but we had 30 minutes of dry running in practice to prepare for the race,” Rockenfeller said. “It went pretty well and I really enjoyed it. The Hungaroring is a great track and I hope that things will be going equally well for me tomorrow.”
It was clear that Audi held the advantage in the dry conditions, with all six drivers featuring in the top ten.
Behind the top three came WorldRX reigning champion Mattias Ekström, whose defence of the WorldRX could take a significant hit as the next round in Holjes clashes with the Norisring DTM round with Audi pushing for him to prioritise DTM.
BMW’s Augusto Farfus completed the top five, just over half a second off the pace set by Rockenfeller.
Championship leader Lucas Auer was the only Mercedes to place in the top half of the table, in ninth place for the Stuttgart outfit.
Last season’s championship runner-up Edoardo Mortara was classified in last place, after completing just 14 laps.
Due to the rain at the end of the session, the drivers were unable to have another trial of the new safety car restart that the series has implemented – which has only been seen once in a racing situation back at Hockenheim.
The second free practice session of the weekend takes place at 9.40 Saturday morning ahead of the first qualifying and race sessions of the third round of the 2017 DTM Series.
