Ekstrom leads Audi 1-2-3 in practice

Audis led the times during Friday's practice sessions as well, but Mercedes closed the gap in Saturday morning's session, with home drivers Jamie Green and Paul di Resta just two tenths of a second adrift.

Ahead of the lead Mercedes drivers, championship leader Timo Scheider was just 0.044s slower than Ekstrom, while Tom Kristensen was third.

Behind Martin Tomczyk and the one-year-old car of Markus Winkelhock, Bernd Schneider was the next-best Mercedes, and the five-time champion has pledged his support to Green and di Resta in the title race.

Less than half a second covered the top 10 around the short Brands Hatch Indy circuit, with Christijan Albers getting his two-year-old Audi into the top half of the field with ninth place.

Further down the order, Ralf Schumacher was only 16th, as the German had his second off of the weekend at Druids. Unlike on Friday though, he managed to keep going rather than get beached in the gravel.

Pos  Driver              Make       Speed     Time
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom     Audi       164.166   42.301
 2.  Timo Scheider       Audi       163.995   42.345 + 0.044
 3.  Tom Kristensen      Audi       163.725   42.415 + 0.114
 4.  Jamie Green         Mercedes   163.301   42.525 + 0.224
 5.  Paul Di Resta       Mercedes   163.282   42.530 + 0.229
 6.  Martin Tomczyk      Audi       163.136   42.568 + 0.267
 7.  M.Winkelhock        Audi       162.922   42.624 + 0.323
 8.  Bernd Schneider     Mercedes   162.868   42.638 + 0.337
 9.  Christijan Albers   Audi       162.487   42.738 + 0.437
10.  M.Rockenfeller      Audi       162.407   42.759 + 0.458
11.  Maro Engel          Mercedes   162.100   42.840 + 0.539
12.  Bruno Spengler      Mercedes   162.002   42.866 + 0.565
13.  Oliver Jarvis       Audi       161.972   42.874 + 0.573
14.  Alexandre Premat    Audi       161.825   42.913 + 0.612
15.  Gary Paffett        Mercedes   161.362   43.036 + 0.735
16.  Ralf Schumacher     Mercedes   160.995   43.134 + 0.833
17.  Katherine Legge     Audi       160.608   43.238 + 0.937
18.  Mathias Lauda       Mercedes   160.349   43.308 + 1.007
19.  Susie Stoddart      Mercedes   160.212   43.345 + 1.044