Ekstrom leads Audi 1-2-3 in practice
Reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom led an Audi 1-2-3 in the final DTM free practice session before qualifying at Brands Hatch
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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments