Field closely matched in Brands test

After 90 minutes of testing, three quarters of the field were covered by just half a second around the 1.2-mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

The split across the field would have been even less if it wasn't for Pierre Kaffer's blisteringly quick lap in the final five minutes of the session.

Kaffer, in last year's Audi A4, stopped the clocks at 43.623 to knock Tom Kristensen off the top of the timesheets after the Dane had held the position for most of the session.

Kristensen was just under a tenth of a second behind the German.

Home driver Jamie Green was the top Mercedes runner in third, on his first visit to the track since running in the British Formula Three Series in 2003, just two hundredths of a second behind Kristensen.

Former champion Mattias Ekstrom was fourth quickest ahead of teammate Martyn Tomczyk, as Audi took four of the top five positions.

Bernd Schneider was sixth quickest ahead of Mika Hakkinen, returning to Brands Hatch for the first time since he won the British Formula 3 championship in 1990.

Jeroen Bleekemolen was 19th quickest on his return to the DTM paddock, having signed for Futurecom TME.

Former Opel DTM driver Bleekemon has replaced Olivier Tielemans, who has been rested after a poor start to the season.