Estoril 1: Opel on top

Opel stalwart Reuter was quickest at the Portuguese circuit in his OPC Team Holzer car, with OPC Team Phoenix driver Aiello less than two hundredths of a second behind him.

It was the first chance for Opel to try out its new machines against the mighty Mercedes and Audi A4s it will be up against this season. Stefan Mucke's 2003 Mercedes CLK was third quickest, a mere 0.005s slower than Aiello.

Despite the encouraging test, Reuter was cautious about Opel's chances against Mercedes and Audi ahead of the first race of the season at Hockenheim on April 18.

"The difference from the Opel Astra V8 Coupe is obvious," he explained. "Where exactly we are we will probably only see at Hockenheim. I think with Audi now being a factory team, the DTM field will be even closer together."

The 2004-specification Mercedes C-Class cars, driven by HWA drivers Bernd Schneider and Jean Alesi, were fourth and fifth quickest of the nine cars on track, while Martin Tomczyk was the best-placed Audi in sixth. The test continues until Thursday.


Manuel Reuter Opel Vectra GTS V8 1m35.368s
Laurent Aiello Opel Vectra GTS V8 1m35.542s
Stefan Mucke AMG-Mercedes CLK 1m35.547s
Bernd Schneider AMG-Mercedes C-Class 1m35.555s
Jean Alesi AMG-Mercedes C-Class 1m35.603s
Martin Tomczyk Audi A4 DTM 1m35.734s
Jarek Janis AMG-Mercedes CLK 1m35.921s
Emanuele Pirro Audi A4 DTM 1m35.939s
Marcel Tiemann Opel Vectra GTS V8 1m36.124s