Mega-shunt halts Oschersleben race one

Front row-sitters Bernd Schneider and Uwe Alzen, plus title-chaser Manuel Reuter successfully negotiated the tight left-hander at the end of the start-finish straight, the Hotel turn. But behind them, Jo Winkelhock's Opel strayed off the clean line, careered over a gravel trap and rejoined the pack, triggering chaos behind.

Winkelhock collided heavily with Timo Scheider's Opel; Pedro Lamy rammed Peter Dumbreck; Marcel Fassler and Klaus Ludwig, both hard on the brakes, concertina-ed together, and in the ensuing chaos, Darren Turner, Thomas Jager and Michael Bartels were all involved.

As the dust cleared, the most severely damaged cars were Ludwig, Winkelhock, Scheider, Fassler, Jager and Turner. But in total, nine cars were carrying at least some damage.

The race was red-flagged, but not before Lamy had coated a third of what was already a treacherously slippery circuit with the contents of his cooling system.

Full report later.