N’Ring, free practice two: Opel one-two-three

Alzen dominated pre-race testing in July and the first free practice session, but was pipped by the Opel Team Phoenix driver by 0.188s. Eric Helary put in the third fastest time to give Opel a one-two-three prior to this afternoon's one hour qualifying session.

The track had dried from the morning session and the times tumbled immediately the cars took to the track. Marcel Fassler went fastest five minutes into the session, with championship leader Bernd Schneider close behind.

Schneider finished the session in fourth 0.052s ahead of Peter Dumbreck, even though the Scot had held the top spot for much of the session.

The Mercedes dominance did not last as the Opels found their groove in the closing minutes of the hour-long session. Eric Helary looked to be the man to beat as the minutes ticked down, but late laps from Bartels and Alzen pushed him to third.

The Abt Audis continued to suffer problems with Christian Abt losing his bonnet halfway round the circuit. The Ingolstadt cars propped up the bottom of the sheets, occupying the last four places.


Michael Bartels Opel V8 Coupe 1m40.140s
Uwe Alzen Opel V8 Coupe 1m40.328s
Eric Helary Opel V8 Coupe 1m40.444s
Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m40.545s
Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m40.597s
Joachim Winkelhock Opel V8 Coupe 1m40.632s
Klaus Ludwig Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m40.852s
Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m40.900s
Darren Turner Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m41.071s
Marcel Tiemann Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m41.078s