Buurman leads Superleague practice

In the morning's first session, held in damp but drying conditions, Buurman topped the times despite a brief gravelly off at Paddock Hill Bend. He was two tenths quicker than John Martin, who was quick in A1GP here, and Chris van der Drift, a winner at Brands in Formula Master in 2008.

In the faster, and totally dry, second session, Buurman brought his time down to 1m13.995s, just 0.071s faster than Andy Soucek in the Sporting Lisbon car. Van der Drift was third fastest for Olympiacos, but two tenths back on the leaders, with Martin (Beijing Guoan) and Duncan Tappy (Flamengo) next up.

Narain Karthikeyan bounced back from a broken driveshaft in the first session to finish the second in sixth, ahead of Liverpool's James Walker. The other Premier League entry, Tottenham Hotspur's Craig Dolby, was down in 10th, almost a second off the pace of title rival Buurman.

There were plenty of incidents as the Superleague cars ran at Brands for the first time. Spins into the gravel for Franck Montagny and Franck Perera brought out waved yellow flags towards the end of the first session.

Druids was the accident magnet in the second period, as Davide Rigon slammed the barrier hard enough to remove his Anderlecht car's left-front corner, and was joined in the car graveyard by Azerti team-mate Robert Doornbos (Corinthians).

Pos  Driver               Team                        Time       Gap
 1.  Yelmer Buurman       AC Milan                    1m13.995s
 2.  Andy Soucek          Sporting Clube de Portugal  1m14.066s  + 0.071s
 3.  Chris van der Drift  Olympiacos                  1m14.201s  + 0.206s
 4.  John Martin          Beijing Guoan               1m14.204s  + 0.209s
 5.  Duncan Tappy         Flamengo                    1m14.301s  + 0.306s
 6.  Narain Karthikeyan   PSV Eindhoven               1m14.409s  + 0.414s
 7.  James Walker         Liverpool FC                1m14.445s  + 0.450s
 8.  Franck Perera        Olympique Lyonnais          1m14.886s  + 0.891s
 9.  Julien Jousse        AS Roma                     1m14.902s  + 0.907s
10.  Craig Dolby          Tottenham Hotspur           1m14.950s  + 0.955s
11.  Alvaro Parente       FC Porto                    1m15.222s  + 1.227s
12.  Franck Montagny      Girondins de Bordeaux       1m15.383s  + 1.388s
13.  Marcos Martinez      Sevilla FC                  1m15.412s  + 1.417s
14.  Tristan Gommendy     Galatasaray                 1m15.786s  + 1.791s
15.  Max Wissel           FC Basel                    1m16.329s  + 2.334s
16.  Maria de Villota     Atletico de Madrid          1m16.936s  + 2.941s
17.  Robert Doornbos      Corinthians                 1m17.784s  + 3.789s
18.  Davide Rigon         RSC Anderlecht              1m17.805s  + 3.810s