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Opel star plays down chances

Manuel Reuter refused to be too confident about Opel's chances of beating Mercedes to pole position at Oschersleben this afternoon despite seeing team-mate Jo Winkelhock top the final free practice times

Reuter, who ended the second practice session just two thousandths of a second slower than Winklehock, believes it is still too early to make predictions.

"You can't read too much into the practice times because the track conditions were changing all the time," he said."The driver who gets his set-up right for the track will be the guy who will be on pole position.

"Because it is so close out there between Mercedes and Opel, everyone is pushing just that little bit harder. That is going to make it quite exciting."

Reuter is, however, hopeful that Opel will not suffer a repeat of their defeat at Hockenheim when Bernd Schneider dominated both races to finish comfortably clear at the front.

"I hope I am right," added Reuter. "In the first race at Hockenheim I made a mistake, and maybe the outcome would have been different if I had stayed on the track. In the second race Schneider and Marcel Fassler started the race on new tyres.

"I think we should be much more competitive here. Mercedes are very good on tracks where you need a high downforce or where there is a low grip-level, whereas we are better on low-downforce circuits.

"At the end of the day there are five quick tracks and four slow circuits this year, so maybe our philosophy will work. But we will only be able to find the answer at the end of the season."

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