The second day had seen Scheider set the fastest time with the Audi test car, clocking 1min 33.774secs after the previously wet track had dried. However, it wasn't a good enough effort to beat Jarvis' day one pace. Paffett took his 2009-spec Mercedes to second position - just two-hundredths slower - while third fell to Prémat.

Jarvis' 1min 33.272secs lap from Monday proved to be 0.502secs faster than Scheider could manage a day later, but the session threw up some curios as the reigning champion suffered the same fate as Audi team-mates Ekström and Martin Tomczyk by achieving the lowest top speed in the process of setting fast lap times. Bakkerud, meanwhile, took his older Audi to the clear highest speed - some 280kph through the traps - but had to settle for coming last on the timesheets, some 1.892secs behind Scheider.

At the wheel of his 2008-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class, Maro Engel covered the biggest mileage of the afternoon and, at the end of 71 laps - representing a total mileage of 324.754km - had set an impressive fourth fastest time.

In Tuesday morning's wet conditions, Rockenfeller clocked the fastest time of 1min 51.039secs and overturning the memory of the Mercedes works drivers appearing second to none in changeable conditions at Dijon. 'Rocky' was 0.487secs faster than the second-placed Audi of Martin Tomczyk, while the four rings also occupied the remainder of the top courtesy of Kristensen - in the test car - Prémat and Ekström.

Behind them, Mercedes secured positions six to nine, with Paffett at the head of the queue but some 1.347secs slower than Rockenfeller. The Briton was followed by Stoddart, Engel and Schumacher.

Jarvis had opened the test by reprising his day one pace-setting from Dijon, but there were a couple of notable events during the session, as Engel received his first outing of 2009, finishing second ahead of team-mate Paffett, and Bakkerud was forced to watch from the stands as his morning session was brought to an abrupt end by contact with the barriers. The Team Kolles Futurecom-TME rookie was largely uninjured in the incident, which the team determined as being the result of brake failure, but suffered a recurrence of the back pain which decimated his GP2 career and prevented an immediate return to action.