Kristensen leads drying Dijon practice

Date published : 10 Oct 2009 - 09:50:38

Tom Kristensen topped the DTM free practice session at Dijon, as Audi took control in a late flurry of activity on track.The majority of the two and a half-hour session took place in damp conditions due to overnight rain, but following a late red flag late due to a Christian Bakkerud crash, it was restarted with six minutes remaining.The track was dry by that point, leading to frenzied activity as drivers worked on the qualifying spec of their cars.Mercedes and Audi had been equally matched in the tricky damp conditions, but it appeared that the C-class was no match for the A4 in the dry, as Audi drivers locked out the top five places.While several Audi drivers put in a sequence of quick laps in the final minutes, the Mercedes drivers had no answer to their pace, with Gary Paffett the top driver of a 2009-spec car in seventh behind Maro Engel's 2008 car.Timo Scheider, who can seal the title this weekend, only went out for a dry run in the final couple of minutes, but his single flying lap was good enough to vault him from 20th to third place.Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Tom Kristensen Audi 1m10.500s 2. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m10.659s + 0.159s 3. Timo Scheider Audi 1m10.778s + 0.278s 4. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m10.862s + 0.362s 5. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m11.058s + 0.558s 6. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m11.132s + 0.632s 7. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m11.278s + 0.778s 8. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1m11.656s + 1.156s 9. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m11.676s + 1.176s10. Katherine Legge Audi 1m11.735s + 1.235s11. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m11.743s + 1.243s12. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m11.755s + 1.255s13. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m11.976s + 1.476s14. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m12.081s + 1.581s15. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m12.095s + 1.595s16. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m12.120s + 1.620s17. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m12.395s + 1.895s18. Tomas Kostka Audi 1m12.916s + 2.416s19. Christian Bakkerud Audi 1m13.971s + 3.471s20. Johannes Seidlitz Audi 1m15.950s + 5.450s