Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

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

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Jarvis fastest in Valencia practice
Next article Ekstrom takes Valencia pole

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe