Ekstrom leads final practice in Spain
Mattias Ekstrom set the fastest time in the final DTM free practice session of the weekend at Valencia, while Mercedes showed its true pace with Gary Paffett and Bruno Spengler close behind
Audi had dominated proceedings on Friday, but Mercedes proved it was going to be on the pace this weekend early in Saturday's session as Spengler topped the times to start with.
Yesterday's pacesetter Oliver Jarvis then kicked off the rush of 'qualifying' runs with just over 15 minutes to go, but the Briton was knocked back five minutes later by Spengler's Mercedes.
Paffett and Paul di Resta also got in on the act at the front of the field in the final 10 minutes, with the Hockenheim race winner going fastest for a while.
Ekstrom hauled himself into contention by going third with three minutes remaining, and he then jumped to the top of the order - 0.088 seconds faster than Paffett - in the final minute.
Behind the top three, a late effort from Mike Rockenfeller in his 2008 Audi bumped Jarvis back to fifth, while di Resta made sure there was a 50/50 split in the top six between the two makes.
Alexandre Premat and Martin Tomczyk were next up for Audi, with the top 10 completed by Jamie Green's 2008-spec Mercedes and reigning champion Timo Scheider.
David Coulthard had a better day after struggling on Friday. The ex-Formula 1 ace finished the session one second off the pace in 14th, having been two seconds off and 17th yesterday.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m29.151s 2. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m29.239s + 0.088s 3. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m29.250s + 0.099s 4. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m29.561s + 0.410s 5. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m29.565s + 0.414s 6. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m29.594s + 0.443s 7. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m29.615s + 0.464s 8. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m29.620s + 0.469s 9. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m29.766s + 0.615s 10. Timo Scheider Audi 1m29.796s + 0.645s 11. Miguel Molina Audi 1m29.865s + 0.714s 12. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m29.885s + 0.734s 13. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m29.949s + 0.798s 14. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m30.180s + 1.029s 15. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m30.294s + 1.143s 16. Franky Cheng Mercedes 1m30.326s + 1.175s 17. Katherine Legge Audi 1m30.470s + 1.319s 18. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m31.836s + 2.685s
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