» DTM Adria: Spengler quickest in second practice

Bruno Spengler has emerged fastest of the 18-car field in the second and final practice session ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying running to determine the grid order for the Adria round of the DTM championship.

The Canadian – who relinquished his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to Paul di Resta at the last round – was among the first of the frontrunners to set a representative time in the closing stages of the morning’s running.

Even though the start of the session was delayed by an hour due to heavy fog in the area, Spengler’s rise up the leaderboard came with 20 minutes still on the clock, and he was joined later by four other drivers who all posted fastest laps within one-tenth of his own fastest lap.

A trio of Audis – being Timo Scheider, Alexandre Prémat and Oliver Jarvis – rounded out the top-four, with Ralf Schumacher a hugely impressive fifth-quickest, posting his best effort to move up the timing screens with just three minutes to go.

Of the other championship rivals, Gary Paffett wound up seventh-quickest, while championship leader Paul di Resta finished seventh-fastest.

And spare a thought for David Coulthard, who went from third-quickest in yesterday’s session to third-slowest in today’s. The former F1 race-winner posted roughly the same time as he had managed in Friday practice, but as the circuit conditions had improved overnight, so too had key rivals’ lap times…

2010 DTM Adria 2nd Practice Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Bruno Spengler	HWA Team Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2009	1:10.238
2.	Timo Scheider	ABT Sportsline Audi A4 2009	+ 0.055
3.	Alexandre Prémat	Team Phoenix Audi A4 2008	+ 0.092
4.	Oliver Jarvis	ABT Sportsline Audi A4 2009	+ 0.095
5.	Ralf Schumacher	HWA Team Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2009	+ 0.095
6.	Markus Winkelhock	Team Rosberg Audi A4 2008	+ 0.125
7.	Gary Paffett	HWA Team Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2009	+ 0.145
8.	Mike Rockenfeller	Team Phoenix Audi A4 2008	+ 0.282
9.	Mattias Ekström	ABT Sportsline Audi A4 2009	+ 0.293
10.	Paul di Resta	HWA Team Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2009	+ 0.477
11.	Martin Tomczyk	ABT Sportsline Audi A4 2009	+ 0.493
12.	Maro Engel	Mücke Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2008	+ 0.539
13.	Susie Stoddart	Persson Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2008	+ 0.644
14.	Jamie Green	Persson Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2008	+ 0.679
15.	Miguel Molina	ABT Sportsline Audi A4 2008	+ 0.687
16.	David Coulthard	Mücke Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2008	+ 0.906
17.	Katherine Legge	Team Rosberg Audi A4 2008	+ 1.067
18.	Congfu Cheng	Persson Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2008	+ 1.136