The Dutchman set his time after the chequered flag fell on his final run, demoting Honda’s Norbert Michelisz, who had only just gone fastest with a time of 8m37.201s, to second place.

Michelisz, in turn, outpaced the Munnich Citroen of Rob Huff, who’d been on the top of the timesheets for most of the last half hour of the session.

Catsburg had set the first benchmark early in the session, with no further improvements possible until the half-way point while the ETCC Audi of Plamen Kralev was rescued after stopping at the exit of Schwalbenschwanz.

Behind Catsburg, Michelisz and Huff was Volvo’s Thed Bjork in fourth, with Esteban Guerrieri fifth fastest after setting a competitive lap in the Campos Racing Chevrolet.

Championship leader Tiago Monteiro (Honda) was a conservative sixth, with Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton seventh, personally delighted with his time set on old tyres in the Citroen.

Nestor Girolami was eighth fastest in the third Volvo ahead of Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet, with the SLR Citroen of Mehdi Bennani completing the top 10.

Unlike Thursday, there were no signs of punctures during the 60-minute session. The only drama was traffic, with a number of WTCC drivers getting caught behind some of the TCR-specification ETCC cars at awkward points on their quickest laps.

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Nicky Catsburg	Volvo	8'34.813
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda	8'37.201	2.388
3	Rob Huff	Citroën	8'39.328	4.515
4	Thed Björk	Volvo	8'41.396	6.583
5	Esteban Guerrieri	Chevrolet	8'42.232	7.419
6	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	8'42.586	7.773
7	Tom Chilton	Citroën	8'42.855	8.042
8	Nestor Girolami	Volvo	8'44.705	9.892
9	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	8'44.841	10.028
10	Mehdi Bennani	Citroën	8'45.322	10.509
11	John Filippi	Citroën	8'45.671	10.858
12	Kevin Gleason	LADA	8'48.987	14.174
13	Ryo Michigami	Honda	8'49.506	14.693
14	Daniel Nagy	Honda	8'54.326	19.513
15	Aurelien Panis	Honda	8'55.079	20.266
16	Yann Ehrlacher	LADA	9'14.620	39.807