Ekstrom sets Norisring pace
On a high from his recent Brands Hatch race win, Mattias Ekstrom continued to lead the pack at the Norisring in testing on Friday - but, as predicted, it was incredibly close
In track temperatures nudging 50 degrees Celsius, and 35 degrees Celsius ambient, Ekstrom lapped his Abt-run Audi A4 in 49.228s, just 0.023 seconds quicker than Bruno Spengler's AMG Mercedes C-Class.
Spengler topped the morning's opening period, and was a gnat's whisker faster than Jean Alesi's year-old Mercedes in both sessions.
Alesi, who always goes well here, was 0.037secs off Spengler - a whole six hundredths off Ekstrom's best time.
Alexandros Margaritis was fourth fastest, eight-hundredths off the pace, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Audi) and series leader Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) completing the top six.
Of the significant others, Mika Hakkinen was eight fastest with AMG Mercedes teammate Jamie Green 10th. Audi's best placed man in the championship, Tom Kristensen, was down in 15th, worryingly half a second off the pace.
Pos Driver Make Time Laps 1. Mattias Ekstrom Audi A4 49.228 39 2. Bruno Spengler Mercedes C-Klasse 49.251 + 0.023 67 3. Jean Alesi Mercedes C-Klasse 49.288 + 0.060 41 4. Alexandros Margaritis Mercedes C-Klasse 49.308 + 0.080 64 5. Heinz-Harald Frentzen Audi A4 49.475 + 0.247 44 6. Bernd Schneider Mercedes C-Klasse 49.537 + 0.309 70 7. Stefan Mucke Mercedes C-Klasse 49.581 + 0.353 32 8. Mika Hakkinen Mercedes C-Klasse 49.594 + 0.366 66 9. Timo Scheider Audi A4 49.628 + 0.400 49 10. Jamie Green Mercedes C-Klasse 49.634 + 0.406 58 11. Pierre Kaffer Audi A4 49.680 + 0.452 43 12. Jeroen Bleekemolen Audi A4 49.680 + 0.452 49 13. Frank Stippler Audi A4 49.712 + 0.484 43 14. Martin Tomczyk Audi A4 49.722 + 0.494 63 15. Tom Kristensen Audi A4 49.741 + 0.513 55 16. Mathias Lauda Mercedes C-Klasse 49.745 + 0.517 51 17. Christian Abt Audi A4 49.757 + 0.529 40 18. Daniel La Rosa Mercedes C-Klasse 49.815 + 0.587 55 19. Vanina Ickx Audi A4 50.349 + 1.121 57
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