Audi dominates at Adria

Although the field was closely matched around the tight and twisty circuit, Ekstrom found a four-tenth advantage to take the top spot from Red Bull team-mate Martin Tomczyk. Joest Racing's Frank Biela produced a great lap late on to take third, although he stopped out on track at the end of the session.

Opel produced a couple of late flying laps to salvage its pride, with Marcel Fassler placing fourth and Peter Dumbreck sixth. They sandwiched early pacesetter Christijan Albers (Mercedes), who set the pace early on but sat out much of the session in the pits with a technical problem.

Yesterday's pacesetter Tom Kristensen was only seventh today for Audi, ahead of Bernd Schneider (Mercedes), Gary Paffett (Mercedes) and Audi's Christian Abt.

Jean Alesi was a lowly 14th after an early clash with the year-old Mercedes of Stefan Mucke damaged the front of his car. Fellow former F1 star Heinz-Harald Frentzen also struggled for pace and was only classified 19th.

Mattias Ekstrom, Audi A4, 1m11.232s
Martin Tomczyk, Audi A4, 1m11.658s
Frank Biela, Audi A4, 1m11.768s
Marcel Fassler, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m11.807s
Christijan Albers, Mercedes C-Class, 1m11.856s
Peter Dumbreck, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m11.889s
Tom Kristensen, Audi A4, 1m11.937s
Bernd Schneider, Mercedes C-Class, 1m11.947s
Gary Paffett, Mercedes C-Class, 1m11.952s
Christian Abt, Audi A4, 1m12.003s