Scheider fastest in Barcelona practice

Date published : 19 Sep 2009 - 10:34:41

DTM championship leader Timo Scheider got his weekend off to a perfect start by setting the fastest time in free practice at Barcelona on Saturday morning.The reigning champion snatched the top spot from Martin Tomczyk with two minutes remaining of the two and a half-hour session, which was dominated by Audis throughout.Tomczyk was fastest for a long period of the morning and the Abt Sportsline driver was also the first of the big guns to switch his attention to qualifying set-ups with 25 minutes remaining.His best lap initially put him half a second clear of the field and it was only in the final couple of minutes that any of his rivals started to close that gap.Oliver Jarvis briefly got his 2008-spec Audi up to second, but he was knocked back to fourth when Scheider went quickest, and Mattias Ekstrom moved into third right at the end.Ralf Schumacher was the top Mercedes in fifth place, having shown relatively well throughout the session. However, his gap of half a second to Scheider will be a concern with the 2009-spec Mercedes running 10 kilograms heavier than their Audi rivals this weekend.Schumacher's HWA team-mates Gary Paffett and Bruno Spengler were next up, while Alexandre Premat, Paul di Resta and Tom Kristensen completed the top 10.Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Timo Scheider Audi 1m07.049s 2. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m07.084s + 0.035s 3. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m07.181s + 0.132s 4. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m07.416s + 0.367s 5. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m07.570s + 0.521s 6. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m07.617s + 0.568s 7. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m07.620s + 0.571s 8. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m07.661s + 0.612s 9. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m07.688s + 0.639s10. Tom Kristensen Audi 1m07.706s + 0.657s11. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m07.795s + 0.746s12. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m07.846s + 0.797s13. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m07.869s + 0.820s14. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1m07.924s + 0.875s15. Katherine Legge Audi 1m07.965s + 0.916s16. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m08.008s + 0.959s17. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m08.194s + 1.145s18. Tomas Kostka Audi 1m08.644s + 1.595s19. Christian Bakkerud Audi 1m09.181s + 2.132s20. Johannes Seidlitz Audi 1m09.424s + 2.375s