Scheider fastest in first practice

The reigning champion produced a late effort to topple his Abt team-mate Martin Tomczyk from the top spot, after Tomczyk had been on top throughout most of the session.

It was only in the final third of the 90-minute session that rivals started to get close to Tomczyk's time, which was 0.6s clear until then.

Scheider's best lap moved him out front by nearly half a second, with Mattias Ekstrom and the leading Mercedes of Jamie Green slotting in behind Tomczyk.

Mike Rockenfeller and Bruno Spengler completed the top six, with Oliver Jarvis ending the session seventh after lying second for most of it.

There were seven Audis in the top nine as Alexandre Premat and Markus Winkelhock followed Jarvis, while Paul di Resta rounded out the top 10 in the first 2009-spec Mercedes.

Series newcomer David Coulthard was 13th quickest, but just half a tenth behind expected front runner Gary Paffett, while fellow former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher was 17th.

Pos Driver              Car           Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Timo Scheider       Audi          1m33.691s            31
 2. Martin Tomczyk      Audi          1m34.122s  +0.431    26
 3. Mattias Ekstrom     Audi          1m34.457s  +0.766    30 
 4. Jamie Green         Mercedes      1m34.549s  +0.858    13  
 5. Mike Rockenfeller   Audi          1m34.679s  +0.988    29
 6. Bruno Spengler      Mercedes      1m34.712s  +1.021    28  
 7. Oliver Jarvis       Audi          1m34.731s  +1.040    24
 8. Alexandre Premat    Audi          1m34.795s  +1.104    20  
 9. Markus Winkelhock   Audi          1m34.867s  +1.176    28
10. Paul di Resta       Mercedes      1m34.953s  +1.262    19 
11. Maro Engel          Mercedes      1m35.063s  +1.372    20 
12. Gary Paffett        Mercedes      1m35.083s  +1.392    30 
13. David Coulthard     Mercedes      1m35.140s  +1.449    23  
14. Miguel Molina       Audi          1m35.329s  +1.638    22
15. Franky Cheng        Mercedes      1m35.369s  +1.678    21   
16. Susie Stoddart      Mercedes      1m35.520s  +1.829    18 
17. Ralf Schumacher     Mercedes      1m35.596s  +1.905    27 
18. Katharine Legge     Audi          1m36.587s  +2.896    15