Bruno Spengler topped DTM practice at the Norisring on Saturday morning; a late flyer putting the BMW driver on top of the times.

Spengler had not been a factor for the main part of the session, with the Audis of Mattias Ekstrom and Edoardo Mortara leading the way for most of it. But the Canadian’s late 48.427-second lap was enough to give the reigning champion the top spot.

Adrien Tambay was just 0.004s slower than Spengler in his Abt Audi, knocking Mortara back to third ahead of his team-mate Filipe Albuquerque and Timo Scheider’s Abt machine.

Championship leader Mike Rockenfeller was seventh in his Phoenix Audi while Robert Wickens was the best Mercedes driver in 13th.

The session was largely incident-free, save for a few moments involving Dirk Werner and Roberto Merhi. Werner overshot the final corner early on, his Schnitzer BMW coming to a halt without hitting anything. Later the car stopped on the inside of the track before the same turn and had to be towed back to the pits.

Merhi had a major lock-up at The Esses with 20 minutes remaining and missed the first part of the corner. Like Werner, he did not hit anything.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car        Time     Gap 1.  Bruno Spengler        Schnitzer BMW   48.427s 2.  Adrien Tambay         Abt Audi        48.431s  +0.004s 3.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi    48.552s  +0.125s 4.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi    48.554s  +0.127s 5.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi        48.596s  +0.169s 6.  Miguel Molina         Phoenix Audi    48.611s  +0.184s 7.  Mike Rockenfeller     Phoenix Audi    48.661s  +0.234s 8.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi        48.703s  +0.276s 9.  Andy Priaulx          RMG BMW         48.788s  +0.361s10.  Martin Tomczyk        RMG BMW         48.814s  +0.387s11.  Joey Hand             RBM BMW         48.817s  +0.390s12.  Augusto Farfus        RBM BMW         48.824s  +0.397s13.  Robert Wickens        HWA Mercedes    48.848s  +0.421s14.  Christian Vietoris    HWA Mercedes    48.858s  +0.431s15.  Marco Wittmann        MTEK BMW        48.860s  +0.433s16.  Jamie Green           Abt Audi        48.868s  +0.441s17.  Timo Glock            MTEK BMW        48.892s  +0.465s18.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes    48.928s  +0.501s19.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Mercedes  48.934s  +0.507s20.  Dirk Werner           Schnitzer BMW   49.174s  +0.747s21.  Daniel Juncadella     Mucke Mercedes  49.174s  +0.747s22.  Roberto Merhi         HWA Mercedes    49.393s  +0.966s