Farfus fastest in Zandvoort DTM practice

Augusto Farfus maintained his push for the DTM title by going fastest in practice for the penultimate round of the season at Zandvoort.

The RBM BMW driver, who is the only man that can deny Mike Rockenfeller this year's championship, ran inside the top five for most of the session, but hit the front with just eight minutes to go. His 1m31.904s lap knocked long-time leader Edoardo Mortara off the top spot by just over a tenth of a second.

Mortara blotted his copybook with a spin exiting the banked Tarzan corner late in the session, the Rosberg Audi driver momentarily blocking the track as he came to a halt and tried to engage a gear.

Third quickest was Abt Audi driver Adrien Tambay, who recovered from an early trip through the gravel at, ironically, the Audi S, to set his time, while Marco Wittmann and Martin Tomczyk completed the top five for, respectively, the MTEK and RMG BMW teams.

Rockenfeller was sixth fastest in his Phoenix Audi with 2012 title winner Bruno Spengler and two-time champion Timo Scheider next up.

Andy Priaulx was an encouraging 11th in his second RMG BMW while fellow Britons Jamie Green and Gary Paffett were only 14th and 18th.