H'heim qualifying race: Schneider wins to take pole

The reigning champion led the 13-lap race from start to finish, beating D2 AMG Mercedes team mate Peter Dumbreck to the first corner and pulling away to a 3.5secs victory. Dumbreck finished second, well clear of the surprisingly quick Tomas Jager, the first of the 2000-spec cars in his Mercedes.

Pedro Lamy was fourth in his Rosberg-run CLK, finishing just two-tenths ahead of Uwe Alzen, who started eighth on the grid. Alzen, who is making his return to the Merc team this weekend, took ten laps to battle past a resolute Darren Turner (Rosberg Merc).

Alzen's team mate Marcel Fassler was next in the queue to pass Turner, but the Swiss couldn't manage it before the end of the race. Laurent Aiello's Audi TT-R was the first non-Merc home in eighth, as he headed Bernd Maylander (Mercedes) and team mate Christian Abt across the line.

Opel's fortunes didn't improve in the opening race of the season, and none of the eight Astra Coupes made it into the top ten. Manuel Reuter soon dropped back from sixth place on the grid, and he had to settle for 12th place, behind the leading Astra of reigning BTCC champ Alain Menu.

Teams now have a 20-minute repair break before the main event starts. Those with work to do include Opel, whose Joachim Winkelhock pitted during the qualifying race.

The rough-and-tumble has started already, with Abt hitting Maylander, Christijan Albers punting off Patrick Huisman in an all-Dutch, all-Merc war, and Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) biffed Hubert Haupt (Opel).

Click here for the qualifying race results.