Premat fastest in Friday practice

Date published : 20 Aug 2010 - 16:47:12

Alexandre Premat finished the first DTM free practice session of the weekend at Zandvoort half a second clear of the field on Friday.The Audi driver led a 1-2-3 for the Ingolstadt marque with Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstrom next up.Premat has shown blistering form at the Dutch circuit before. In 2007 he gave away a victory to Martin Tomczyk on the run to the chequered flag to help Audi's title chances.Maro Engel's 2008-spec C-class was the only Mercedes to get into the top eight, setting the fourth-fastest time. But Audi will be wary of reading too much into Friday's times after it made a strong start last time out at the Nurburgring and was then beaten comfortably in the race.Timo Scheider, Markus Winkelhock, Martin Tomczyk and Oliver Jarvis filled fifth to eighth places. The top 10 was completed by the Mercedes of Susie Stoddart and Gary Paffett, but the pair were more than one second adrift of Premat's best lap.Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m33.274s 29 2. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m33.793s +0.519 28 3. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m33.863s +0.589 34 4. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m33.959s +0.685 26 5. Timo Scheider Audi 1m34.125s +0.851 37 6. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m34.320s +1.046 25 7. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m34.368s +1.094 36 8. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m34.385s +1.111 36 9. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m34.424s +1.150 2910. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m34.528s +1.254 2911. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m34.539s +1.265 2612. Miguel Molina Audi 1m34.691s +1.417 4013. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m34.754s +1.480 3014. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m34.777s +1.503 2615. David Coulthard Mercedes 1m34.960s +1.686 2816. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m35.064s +1.790 2717. Cong Fu Cheng Mercedes 1m35.116s +1.842 2618. Katherine Legge Audi 1m35.569s +2.295 35