Oil slick and yellows disrupt session

Problems began when Laurent Aiello broke an oil line, leaving an intermittent slick around the circuit. This caused Peter Dumbreck to spin, and the session was red flagged to mop up the oil.

However, when it resumed, a number of cars went off the track while trying to improve their times in the last 9mins on the still slippery surface.

Recently crowned champion Bernd Schneider then went quicker but had his best time disallowed as he set it under yellow flags while Patrick Huisman's Mercedes was being retrieved from the Tarzan gravel trap. Another to lose out was Manuel Reuter, who dropped from eighth to 10th when his best time was deleted for the same reason.

But Schneider's team boss, Mercedes-Benz's Norbert Haug, believes Bernd should have been allowed to keep his time.

"He took off speed as he passed the yellow flag," argued Haug. "We can prove this with our data. This was basically the case we had at Spa [in F1 qualifying, where a number of drivers improved their times during a yellow flag sector], so we will check the rules as we did there. He deserved the fifth position."

Schneider is currently 14th on the grid, but his best lap would have put him fifth.