Norisring: Aiello stuns Schneider

Aiello left it late - the last corner to be precise - but he knew it was his only chance of beating the Mercedes CLK he had trailed since the middle of the race. As Schneider braked and prepared to take his usual line, Aiello held off the anchors for as long as he dare to slide his TT underneath the lead car, clouting the side of the Mercedes as he did so. From there it was a sprint to the line, which the Frenchman won by a tenth of a second.

It was a fitting end to a thrilling race, although Schneider was far from impressed with the manner in which he had been denied. Up until that point the German had driven a great race, which merited the win. At the start Schneider out-dragged pole man Mattias Ekstrom but dropped back to third when the Swede refused to concede the first corner and forced him wide.

Uwe Alzen stole in to lead the early laps, but he would not be a contender for the win after he was handed a stop/go penalty for creeping at the start. This worried Schneider not for he had already squeezed inside the sister Mercedes going into T3 on lap six.

Aiello spent the first half of the race slightly adrift of Schneider and Alzen, but after he became the first of the leading runners to pit on lap 16 he really put the hammer down. Schneider came in a lap later and when he rejoined he found Aiello right on his tail.

On lap 23, Aiello led for the first time, taking advantage of a mistake by Schneider in the chicane to out-drag the German into T3. However, the Mercedes proved to have superior top speed/traction and by the end of the run into T1, Schneider was back in the lead.

Aiello repeated a near carbon-copy move on lap 27 only to see Schneider once again retake the place. For the rest of the 44 laps he held station until making his all-or-nothing attempt on the final lap.

Ekstrom matched the pace of the leaders, but was unable to make up time lost during a slow pitstop and had to settle for third. Alesi led briefly during the stops, but had an otherwise low-key run to fourth.

Alzen's penalty initially dropped him down to 10th, but a storming drive netted fifth, ahead of Christian Albers, who did well to bring his 2001-car home in the top six. Peter Dumbreck salvaged something from a difficult weekend with ninth. It was a battling performance, with a tussle with Karl Wendlinger the highlight. The Austrian lost his rear valance in the scrap and that dropped him back to 12th. Manuel Reuter was the only Opel in the top 10 in seventh.


Laurent Aiello Abt-Audi TT-R 37m35.213s
Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK +0.197ss
Mattias Ekstrom Abt-Audi TT-R +3.253s
Jean Alesi Mercedes-Benz CLK +8.458s
Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK +11.439s
Christian Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK +22.336s
Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 Coupe +26.504s
Bernd Maylander Mercedes-Benz CLK +28.632s
Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK +30.537s
Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK +39.549s