Paul di Resta topped the DTM practice session at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning, after a late charge enabled him to knock Timo Scheider off the top spot.

Reigning champion Scheider, who won at Brands last year, was on top for most of the session, but he was unable to respond to di Resta's best lap in the closing minutes, despite putting on new tyres for his final run.

He had two flying laps at the end, but made errors on both, having a slide at the final corner on the first lap, then a trip through the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend on his last lap.

Behind the top two, British drivers Jamie Green and Oliver Jarvis put in good performances on home soil in their 2008-spec cars to take third and fourth in the closing stages, while title contender Gary Paffett ended up fifth, having been second to Scheider for most of the session.

Mattias Ekstrom jumped up to sixth at the end after a quiet session where he spent most of his time towards the bottom of the top 10, while seventh placed Maro Engel was another driver of a 2008-spec car to shine in his Mercedes.

Tom Kristensen, Markus Winkelhock and Martin Tomczyk completed the top 10 for Audi, while Bruno Spengler was 11th after opting not to go out in the closing stages when most drivers improved their times.

The session was red-flagged three times, due to offs for the Audis of Katherine Legge, Alexandre Premat and Christian Bakkerud at Druids.

Pos  Driver              Car       Time     Gap
 1.  Paul di Resta       Mercedes  41.849s
 2.  Timo Scheider       Audi      41.970s  + 0.121s
 3.  Jamie Green         Mercedes  42.039s  + 0.190s
 4.  Oliver Jarvis       Audi      42.056s  + 0.207s
 5.  Gary Paffett        Mercedes  42.122s  + 0.273s
 6.  Mattias Ekstrom     Audi      42.133s  + 0.284s
 7.  Maro Engel          Mercedes  42.166s  + 0.317s
 8.  Tom Kristensen      Audi      42.185s  + 0.336s
 9.  Markus Winkelhock   Audi      42.217s  + 0.368s
10.  Martin Tomczyk      Audi      42.233s  + 0.384s
11.  Bruno Spengler      Mercedes  42.241s  + 0.392s
12.  Mike Rockenfeller   Audi      42.302s  + 0.453s
13.  Mathias Lauda       Mercedes  42.401s  + 0.552s
14.  Katherine Legge     Audi      42.447s  + 0.598s
15.  Susie Stoddart      Mercedes  42.525s  + 0.676s
16.  Ralf Schumacher     Mercedes  42.526s  + 0.677s
17.  Alexandre Premat    Audi      42.578s  + 0.729s
18.  Tomas Kostka        Audi      42.794s  + 0.945s
19.  Johannes Seidlitz   Audi      43.532s  + 1.683s
20.  Christian Bakkerud  Audi      43.588s  + 1.739s