Norisring: Albers scores third win

Once early leader Jean Alesi observed his drive-through penalty for blatantly jumping the start, Schneider took a solid lead over Albers of just over a second until the first round of pit stops. A major fumble with one of the rear wheels meant Schneider was stationary for far too long, and it was all the invitation that Albers required to jump into a commanding lead which he would hold until the finish.

All that dropped Schneider to fifth, and although he made short work of Laurent Aiello's Audi, he found Peter Dumbreck's Opel a tougher nut to crack. In fact, Schneider needed a favour from the unlikely source of Peter Terting, as the Audi rookie blatantly held up Dumbreck after his second stop, and Schneider was able to rejoin in front of the Scot with ease to make sure it was an all-AMG Mercedes podium.

Dumbreck scored his fifth successive points scoring finish of the year in fourth, while Alesi's comeback got him past Aiello in the closing stages. Alesi almost got taken off in a comedy moment with less than 10 laps remaining by Japanese Mercedes racer Katsutomo Kaneishi, which almost allowed Aiello to grab fifth place back. Kaneishi destroyed the left rear corner of his car just a lap later by hitting the wall behind the Steintribune.

Christian Abt (Audi) and Joachim Winkelhock (Opel) were the other points scorers.


1 Christijan Albers (Mercedes) 72 laps
2 Marcel Fassler (Mercedes) +5.7s
3 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) +12s
4 Peter Dumbreck (Opel) +19.3s
5 Jean Alesi (Mercedes) +30.1s
6 Laurent Aiello (Audi) +31.7s