Premat fastest, Coulthard shines
| By Glenn Freeman |
Friday, October 29th 2010, 14:44 GMT |
 Alexandre Premat led an Audi one-two in free practice at Adria on Friday, while David Coulthard was the top Mercedes in third.
Premat snatched the top spot from his Phoenix Audi team-mate Mike Rockenfeller as the chequered flag came out to conclude the 90-minute session.
In doing so, the Frenchman became the first driver of the weekend to dip under the best lap from the last time the series visited the Italian circuit in 2004, which was a 1m11.133s set by Mattias Ekstrom in qualifying.
Rockenfeller had sat on top of the timesheets for quite a while prior to Premat's run, as the 2008 cars from both manufacturers stole the show.
Coulthard, who featured in the top 10 for most of the session, shot up to second with two minutes to go. His Mucke Motorsport team-mate Maro Engel was marginally slower, and both were then bumped down a place by Premat's late run.
Jamie Green and Miguel Molina completed a top six lockout for older cars, while Ekstrom was the fastest 2009-spec driver in seventh.
Markus Winkelhock and Martin Tomczyk were next up, with Bruno Spengler the only one of the three Mercedes title contenders to make the top 10.
His rivals, Gary Paffett and championship leader Paul di Resta, settled for 15th and 16th places in a session where neither appeared to have any dramas. Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m10.912s
2. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m11.155s + 0.243s
3. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m11.198s + 0.286s
4. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m11.322s + 0.410s
5. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m11.371s + 0.459s
6. Miguel Molina Audi 1m11.513s + 0.601s
7. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m11.523s + 0.611s
8. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m11.564s + 0.652s
9. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m11.658s + 0.746s
10. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m11.691s + 0.779s
11. Katherine Legge Audi 1m11.699s + 0.787s
12. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m11.882s + 0.970s
13. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m11.926s + 1.014s
14. Timo Scheider Audi 1m11.956s + 1.044s
15. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m12.013s + 1.101s
16. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m12.025s + 1.113s
17. Cong Fu Cheng Mercedes 1m12.224s + 1.312s
18. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m12.356s + 1.444s
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