Lausitz Qualifying Race: Aiello wins
Laurent Aiello made the most of his pole position to lead the DTM qualification race from start to finish at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, earning himself another valuable 3 points in his pursuit of the championship. Aiello held off pressure at the first corner from his Audi TT team-mate Christian Abt and had established a lead of over a second by the end of the first lap.
Lead Mercedes driver Bernd Schneider made a poor start from second on the grid, being passed easily by Abt and falling into the clutches of Martin Tomczyk in the third Audi. Schneider battled with the TT-R throughout the first two laps before slipping past him on the exit of the final corner of the second tour. Although Schneider took 0.3s out of Aiello's lead, he quickly settled for second place and a front-row starting slot for the feature race.
Schneider's team-mate, former F1 star Jean Alesi, had a terrible start. He singularly failed to get off the line and dropped to 21st and last place. In such a short race, Alesi did well to fight his way up to 14th, and must now put in a storming feature race drive if he is to score points.
Abt had a quiet race once Schneider had passed him, and was never under any pressure from fourth-placed Mattias Ekstrom in yet another Audi. Former Swedish touring car champion Ekstrom was leading a three car battle for the lower points-scoring places, and was harried by Tomczyk, who had slipped back after his earlier battle with Schneider, and Marcel Fassler to the flag.
Lead Opel driver Joachim Winkelhock finished a battling seventh, ahead of Alain Menu Astra Coupe and the fast starting Uwe Alzen's Mercedes. Peter Dumbreck made up two places on his starting position to finish 16th in a 2001-spec Mercedes CLK.
The grid for the feature race will be based on the finishing order of the qualifying race, and starts at 12.30 BST
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 12m00.349s (98.579mph)
Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m02.110s
Christian Abt (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 12m05.528s
Mattias Ekström (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 12m06.193s
Martin Tomczyk (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 12m10.129s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Bend CLK, 12m10.499s
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 12m11.270s
Alain Menu (CH) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 12m14.419s
Uwe Alzen (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m14.532s
Karl Wendlinger (CH) Abt-Audi TT-R, 12m22.103s
Manuel Reuter (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 12m22.370s
Thomas Jäger (D) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m23.240s
Timo Scheider (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 12m23.627s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m24.032s
Patrick Huisman (NL) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m25.267s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m25.567s
Bernd Maylander (D) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m25.828s
Stefan Mücke (D) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 12m26.905s
Michael Bartels (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 12m27.371s
Christijan Albers (NL) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 13m27.092s
Yves Olivier (B) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, DNF
Share Or Save This Story
Why Hamilton now has everything in the right place at Ferrari
Green wins again as GB4 title race heats up at Oulton Park
Alpine continues quest to fix Gasly's mystifying car issues
Oulton Park round sets up thrilling British GT 2026 title fight
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments