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Saturday, 12th April 2008

Five Audis, three Mercs in top eight is the balance at the end of the first truly competitive showdown in 2008 - but who will prevail come race day..?

Fellow former title-winner Gary Paffett rounded out the top ten, with Ralf Schumacher lining up 15th for his debut in the leading pan-European tin-top series – the six-time grand prix winner having missed making it through into Q2 by an agonising 88 thousandths of a second – Susie Stoddart 17th and rookie Katherine Legge 19th. Stoddart was actually looking good to make it through to the second session having posted the twelfth-quickest lap time early on, but a mistake when she went off at turn one put paid to the Scot's hopes.

Earlier on, Audi had again served signal of its intent as four of the Ingolstadt machines topped the final free practice session in the hands of Scheider, Tomczyk, Ekström and Kristensen, with the leading twelve drivers all blanketed by just one second.

As he had been all weekend until Spengler narrowly pipped him in qualifying, di Resta emerged as the fastest Mercedes pilot in fifth, albeit more than half a second away from the ultimate pace.

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To see the qualifying times in full, click here

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