Spengler beats Audis in practice

Audi is expected to have the upper hand this weekend, and it started well by getting four cars in the top five. However, Spengler trumped them all with his final lap of the session.

Tomczyk was the only 2009-spec Audi in the top five, and he managed second place despite having his best lap taken away for taking a short cut.

Behind him were the 2008-spec A4s of Mike Rockenfeller, Markus Winkelhock and Alexandre Premat, while David Coulthard was the second best Mercedes as he completed the top six.

The top 10 was rounded out by two Audis and two Mercedes. Oliver Jarvis headed Maro Engel, reigning champion Timo Scheider, and Force India Formula 1 test driver Paul di Resta.

Former champions Mattias Ekstrom and Gary Paffett just missed out on the top 10, ahead of the two stars of the last event.

Norisring pole-sitter Ralf Schumacher was only 13th, while the race winner from one month ago, Jamie Green, was next up in 14th in his 2008-spec Mercedes.

Pos  Driver             Car       Time       Gap
 1.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes  1m24.222s
 2.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi      1m24.351s  + 0.129s
 3.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi      1m24.410s  + 0.188s
 4.  Markus Winkelhock  Audi      1m24.494s  + 0.272s
 5.  Alexandre Premat   Audi      1m24.594s  + 0.372s
 6.  David Coulthard    Mercedes  1m24.669s  + 0.447s
 7.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi      1m24.677s  + 0.455s
 8.  Maro Engel         Mercedes  1m24.770s  + 0.548s
 9.  Timo Scheider      Audi      1m24.778s  + 0.556s
10.  Paul di Resta      Mercedes  1m25.005s  + 0.783s
11.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi      1m25.191s  + 0.969s
12.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes  1m25.339s  + 1.117s
13.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes  1m25.347s  + 1.125s
14.  Jamie Green        Mercedes  1m25.352s  + 1.130s
15.  Katherine Legge    Audi      1m25.704s  + 1.482s
16.  Miguel Molina      Audi      1m25.725s  + 1.503s
17.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes  1m25.910s  + 1.688s
18.  Cong Fu Cheng      Mercedes  1m26.120s  + 1.898s