Aiello paces opening session

After the opening one and a half hour period, Aiello's 1m35.645s was just 0.005sec faster than Mattias Ekstrom's best in his Audi A4. Timo Scheider showed the Opel laptime was no fluke with the third fastest time, again within a tenth of a second of Aiello's fastest mark.

Jean Alesi was the fastest of the Mercedes runners in fourth, four-tenths off the leading pace. Marcel Fassler (Opel), Christijan Albers (Mercedes) and the Audis of Tom Kristensen and Christian Abt were next up. Opel's Peter Dumbreck was ninth fastest, ahead of reigning champion Bernd Schneider of Mercedes.

Jarek Janis was an impressive 11th overall in his year-old Mercedes, outpacing Gary Paffett's contemporary AMG C-Class. Big names Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Opel) and Frank Biela (Audi) languished in 16th and 17th respectively, but they have another one and a half hours to turn that around this afternoon.

Laurent Aiello, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m35.645s
Mattias Ekstrom, Audi A4, 1m35.650s
Timo Scheider, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m35.736s
Jean Alesi, Mercedes C-Class, 1m36.048s
Marcel Fassler, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m36.088s
Christijan Albers, Mercedes C-Class, 1m36.396s
Tom Kristensen, Audi A4, 1m36.402s
Christian Abt, Audi A4, 1m36.498s
Peter Dumbreck, Opel Vectra GTS, 1m36.555s
Bernd Schneider, Mercedes C-Class, 1m36.702s