Impressive Aiello surprised by Audi out of the box

The Frenchman's stretched TT-R actually held pole position in the middle portion of the single 45-minute session, when a damp but drying track allowed him to exploit the improved mechanical and aerodynamic grip of the still-unsorted car.

Aiello was pipped by a horde of Mercedes, plus Manuel Reuter's Opel Astra, in the closing minutes of the session, but believed he was capable of putting in a time that could have put him on the front row. His car suffered a radio problem which meant that he was unable to receive instructions from his race engineer Ludovic Lacroix to come in for fresh tyres at the optimum point in the session.

"I think we are well surprised by our position," he said. "Especially because I drove it for the first time only yesterday and it still has all those little problems that you expect with a new car. But compared to last year's car, it is immediately obvious that this is a major improvement."

The 1999 British Touring Car Champion said the main area of improvement was grip in the fast corners, but the car still suffered from the lack of a working set-up in the slow- and medium-speed corners.

"In the fast corners, you can really feel the extra grip," he said. "I think that's probably more aerodynamic than mechanical. But for the rest of them, the car is jumping around from understeer to oversteer. But that's to be expected - we have to work on it and learn to improve it.

"The first time I went out on the damp track, I couldn't believe how much grip we had compared to last year - I set the pole time I held for a while with a little brake problem. So if it rains on Sunday and it gives us a bit of an advantage, we'll take it."

For 2001, series organiser ITR has allowed Abt to extend the wheelbase of the stubby Audi and to improve downforce with a wing mounted further back. The car is also allowed to run the lip spoiler seen on the production TT, although this has raised some eyebrows in Opel and Mercedes quarters.

Ironically, despite the marked improvement in the car's competitiveness, Aiello is unlikely to feature in the final battle for the title: the Frenchman is committed to racing at Le Mans in June for Audi and will therefore miss the Sachsenring DTM round, one of only 10 scoring chances in the series' compact schedule.

Abt is running four cars in the 2001 DTM, with Aiello joined by Christian Abt and DTM rookies Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom.