Audi not getting carried away

All four of the new cars were towards the top of the timesheets in the dry session, while they were strong again in the afternoon's wet session despite Paul di Resta setting the fastest time in his Mercedes before conditions deteriorated.

But Audi's head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich believes that no judgements can be made before qualifying regarding who will be quick this weekend.

"Things have gone well so far," he told autosport.com. "But everybody is running their own programme.

"There is no point trying to make any comparisons with Mercedes, it is only in qualifying that we will see how fast everyone is."

Martin Tomczyk, who was fastest during the dry practice session on Friday, believes that Mercedes could be holding back until the first competitive session of the year.

"We didn't have any problems whatsoever today, but we shouldn't delude ourselves," said the German.

"Mercedes will probably have a few cards up their sleeve for qualifying. But we know where we stand and how fast our car can be. It has been a very productive day for us."