Audi dominate practice at Hockenheim

The Abt Sportsline driver, who has been strong throughout pre-season testing, set a best lap nearly four tenths of a second quicker than his teammate Martin Tomczyk, with reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom and Tom Kristensen not far behind.

Paul di Resta kept up his form from Friday as he continued to be the strongest Mercedes runner, but the Scottish driver was six tenths of a second adrift of Scheider's best effort.

The HWA driver briefly got amongst the Audis during a late charge in the session, but he was soon bumped back to fifth as most of the field worked on qualifying trim in the closing stages.

While di Resta's HWA team-mates Bruno Spengler and Bernd Schneider were also in the top 10 in seventh and ninth respectively, Audi's strong performance was backed up by the 2007-spec cars of Mike Rockenfeller, Markus Winkelhock and Oliver Jarvis all making the top 10 as well.

Series rookie Ralf Schumacher climbed up to 14th with his final lap of the session, although his early running had been hampered when a piece of his rear wing came off the car.

The session also marked a return to action for Susie Stoddart, who had to sit out Friday afternoon following a dramatic fire in her car caused by a detached fuel line.

Pos  Driver             Car       Time
 1.  Timo Scheider      Audi      1:33.080
 2.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi      1:33.408  + 0.328
 3.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi      1:33.468  + 0.388
 4.  Tom Kristensen     Audi      1:33.518  + 0.438
 5.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes  1:33.625  + 0.545
 6.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi      1:33.635  + 0.555
 7.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes  1:33.666  + 0.586
 8.  Markus Winkelhock  Audi      1:33.731  + 0.651
 9.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes  1:33.742  + 0.662
10.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi      1:33.811  + 0.731
11.  Alexandre Premat   Audi      1:33.956  + 0.876
12.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes  1:34.067  + 0.987
13.  Jamie Green        Mercedes  1:34.184  + 1.104
14.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes  1:34.595  + 1.515
15.  Christijan Albers  Audi      1:34.733  + 1.653
16.  Maro Engel         Mercedes  1:34.739  + 1.659
17.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes  1:34.874  + 1.794
18.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes  1:35.003  + 1.923
19.  Katherine Legge    Audi      1:35.607  + 2.527