Tomczyk tops practice in Shanghai

Tomczyk only started to feature towards the top of the times with just over 20 minutes remaining. Prior to that, he had been one of the slowest cars on track, but then set consistent quick laps for the rest of the session.

Engel, who had been one of the pace-setters throughout, briefly knocked Tomczyk back to second, but the Audi driver responded with 14 minutes to go and would remain on top until the end.

The session was stopped four minutes early when Engel smashed into the end of the pit wall. The track's pit entry had raised some concerns before the session, as the wall - protected by tyres - starts in the middle of a very narrow section of track.

Engel's accident was caused when he clipped the wall on the opposite side of the track, sending him straight into the end of the pit wall. The impact destroyed the right hand side of his car, leading to concerns that he won't be able to race this weekend due to the damage.

Behind Tomczyk, title contenders Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett were next up after both looked strong throughout the session.

Paffett can also be credited with save of the day, as he caught a huge slide in the middle of the long final corner when he hit a bump at high speed.

Miguel Molina and Engel completed the top five in their 2008-spec cars, while championship leader Bruno Spengler was sixth fastest.

The Canadian, who leads di Resta by three points and Paffett by nine going into this weekend's decider, made a cautious start to the session. He only found his feet with 20 minutes to go and then started to show a front-running pace.

David Coulthard took advantage of most of the field making a cautious start to the session by spending some time as the pace-setter early on. The Scot eventually finished the day in 10th, half a second adrift of Tomczyk.

Pos Driver                Team          Time       Gap    Laps
 1. Martin Tomczyk        Audi          1m00.858s           44
 2. Paul di Resta         Mercedes      1m00.887s  +0.029   48
 3. Gary Paffett          Mercedes      1m00.916s  +0.058   51
 4. Miguel Molina         Audi          1m00.963s  +0.105   44
 5. Maro Engel            Mercedes      1m00.979s  +0.121   39
 6. Bruno Spengler        Mercedes      1m00.996s  +0.138   44
 7. Timo Scheider         Audi          1m01.136s  +0.278   36
 8. Markus Winkelhock     Audi          1m01.175s  +0.317   42
 9. Oliver Jarvis         Audi          1m01.322s  +0.464   44
10. David Coulthard       Mercedes      1m01.387s  +0.529   40
11. Katherine Legge       Audi          1m01.482s  +0.624   47
12. Jamie Green           Mercedes      1m01.523s  +0.665   38
13. Mike Rockenfeller     Audi          1m01.530s  +0.672   36
14. Ralf Schumacher       Mercedes      1m01.743s  +0.885   35
15. Mattias Ekstrom       Audi          1m01.790s  +0.932   44
16. Susie Stoddart        Mercedes      1m01.911s  +1.053   39
17. Cong Fu Cheng         Mercedes      1m01.977s  +1.119   46
18. Darryl O'Young        Audi          1m02.458s  +1.600   36