Test 3: Ekstrom again

Ekstrom set the fastest lap of the weekend of 1m23.950s to lead the way. His Abt-Audi team-mate Tom Kristensen came closest to rivaling him, the Dane setting the fastest first sector but failing overall to beat Ekstrom by a quarter of a second. Fortunately, the broken oil line which ended Kristensen's day prematurely on Friday did not damage his Audi's engine.

Bernd Schneider was third fastest for Mercedes, ahead of the top Opel, that of Marcel Fassler. The Opel squad has followed Mercedes' lead in running rear wheel flanges, but only Fassler seemed to get any benefit from them.

Martin Tomczyk was fifth quickest in his Audi, ahead of recent form man Gary Paffett (Mercedes). His AMG colleagues Christijan Albers and Jean Alesi were down in eighth and 11th respectively. Peter Dumbreck also fell off the pace, the Opel man down in 12th having been second fastest yesterday.

The session wasn't too great for his team-mate Laurent Aiello, whose Vectra shed a wheel at Turn 1. Emanuele Pirro's Audi A4 lost one of its rear brake lights at high-speed on the start/finish straight, while Manuel Reuter spun his Opel at the NGK chicane.