Qual: Paffett's Chinese delight

The British ace, who was also fastest in the qualifying session prior to the Super Pole, has already won twice this year, including the most recent round at the Norisring at the end of June, but until now had not started from pole. His 1m14.529s lap was just 0.024s quicker than Alesi's.

"Qualifying was great," said Paffett, "the track got quicker from this morning and the circuit is great fun to drive. The track this morning was actually like driving in the wet also the white lines were very slippery. In Super Pole, although I did not do a perfect lap, it was just good enough for first."

Alesi was simply happy to be on the front row. "This is a very tough course and it will be difficult to overtake," he said. "It's very important to be on the first two rows of the grid for the race. It is fantastic to have this race at the Shanghai circuit, although it is very low grip so it will be important to keep on the racing line."

Le Mans winner Kristensen was only four thousandths off Alesi's time while Audi team-mate Martin Tomczyk was close enough in terms of pace to worry the trio in front of him.

Emanuele Pirro's Joest Audi was fifth fastest ahead of Mercedes star Bernd Schneider. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the fastest Opel driver in seventh while Rinaldo Capello, in a one-off DTM drive for Audi did well to qualify eighth although he was more than a second off the pace.

So far the feedback from the drivers has been highly positive over the new Chinese circuit, which has been described as a 'maxi Norisring'. The new venue will host two 30-minute non-championship races for the DTM tomorrow.

"The track is faster than I expected," said Opel's Timo Scheider. "I am looking forward to the race but I will be very careful of those walls! Although the hot and humid conditions are different for us, the races are'nt very long, so this should not be a problem."

Mercedes driver Christijan Albers agreed. "This is a really good atmosphere in a really nice city! I like the track a lot and because I do not have to worry about championship points, I will enjoy the race. I will still have to be careful though and will build up steadily to the race."

Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m14.529s
Jean Alesi Mercedes 1m14.553s
Tom Kristensen Audi 1m14.557s
Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m14.499s
Emanuele Pirro Audi 1m14.775s
Bernd Schneider Mercedes 1m15.211s
Heinz-Harald Frentzen Opel 1m15.651s
Rinaldo Capello Audi 1m15.655s
Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m15.757s
Christijan Albers Mercedes 1m16.595s