Ekstrom leads second practice

Date published : 06 Aug 2011 - 09:04:31

Mattias Ekstrom continued the Abt Audi squad's strong start to the Nurburgring DTM weekend by setting the pace in the second free practice session at the German circuit.The two-time DTM champion's table-topping time of 1m24.538s came with 10 minutes of the session to go and knocked his team-mate Mike Rockenfeller off the top spot by just over 0.1s.Ekstrom almost improved his time in the final minute, but despite setting the best first sector time of all, fell short by just 0.04s. Series leader Bruno Spengler was just 0.007s off Ekstrom's pace in his HWA Mercedes while Friday pace-setter Rockenfeller also improved on his mark late on to take third.In an amazingly close session - even by DTM standards - Miguel Molina made it three Abt cars in the top four, albeit in an older-spec A4 than either Ekstrom or Rockenfeller. He was only 0.05s off the pace.Two more old Audis were next up in the hands of Phoenix and Rosberg drivers Martin Tomczyk and Edoardo Mortara, while Gary Paffett improved considerably on his Friday pace to go seventh for HWA.Abt team-mates Oliver Jarvis and Timo Scheider were next up with Jamie Green - who had the only minor moment of the session as he outbraked himself and ran wide at Turn 1, completing the top 10 for HWA.As was the case on Friday, a second covered the top 17 drivers.Pos Driver Team Time 1. Mattias Ekstr?m Audi 1m24.538s 2. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m24.545s + 0.007s 3. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m24.568s + 0.030s 4. Miguel Molina Audi 1m24.587s + 0.049s 5. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m24.727s + 0.189s 6. Edoardo Mortara Audi 1m24.769s + 0.231s 7. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m24.790s + 0.252s 8. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m24.790s + 0.252s 9. Timo Scheider Audi 1m24.799s + 0.261s10. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m24.840s + 0.302s11. Christian Vietoris Mercedes 1m24.856s + 0.318s12. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m24.944s + 0.406s13. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m24.957s + 0.419s14. Filipe Albuquerque Audi 1m25.085s + 0.547s15. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m25.226s + 0.688s16. Renger van der Zande Mercedes 1m25.237s + 0.699s17. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m25.590s + 1.052s18. Rahel Frey Audi 1m25.792s + 1.254s