Friday practice: Audis threaten Merc dominance

Abt's French charger Laurent Aiello was third fastest in the quicker second session, lapping his Audi TT-R in 1m37.412s, 0.318secs slower than the fastest Merc, that of Tomas Jager. To back this up, Christian Abt was second fastest in the first test period, just 0.112secs off Marcel Fassler's quickest time in his AMG Mercedes.

"Our start to the season is already quite good, but we have more planned for this year," said Abt. "We want to confirm our performance at the 'Ring and maybe even fight for the podium."

Series leader, and reigning champion, Bernd Schneider was fifth quickest overall, trailing Jager, Uwe Alzen (Mercedes), Aiello and Fassler. Two more Audis, those of Martin Tomczyk and Abt followed him, with his team mate, Scotland's Peter Dumbreck, in eighth.

Opel continues to struggle, with the top Astra Coupe that of Manuel Reuter in 12th. None of the eight Opels made it into the top ten in the opening round at Hockenheim, which was blamed on them not being able to generate heat into their tyres. The weather has worked against them at the Nurburgring too, as the circuit is shrouded in fog and the temperature struggled to make it towards double figures.


Tomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m37.094s
Uwe Alzen, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m37.180s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m37.412s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m37.632s
Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m37.719s
Martin Tomczyk, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m37.814s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R 1m37.847s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m37.957s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m38.020s
Christijan Albers, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m38.030s