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Oschersleben, free practice 1: all about Opel

Opel gave its dwindling DTM hopes a boost by taking the top five slots in the first free practice session at Oschersleben. But the achievement may prove short-lived: just to put things in perspective, most of Mercedes’ leading lights, including Bernd Schn


Opel gave its dwindling DTM hopes a boost by taking the top five slots in the first free practice session at Oschersleben. But the achievement may prove short-lived: just to put things in perspective, most of Mercedes' leading lights, including Bernd Schneider, Klaus Ludwig and Peter Dumbreck, didn't bother venturing out onto the track.

Jo Winkelhock topped the time sheets, ahead of the fast but fragile Uwe Alzen, Timo Scheider and Opel's best hope of title glory, Manuel Reuter. Reuter is currently third in the points, but 51 behind Schneider. Frenchman Eric Helary completed the Opel top five.

Top Mercedes was Thomas Jager in sixth, but perhaps more representative are the test times posted on Thursday. In that, Schneider topped the time sheets, ahead of Marcel Tiemann, with the quickest Opel some 0.345s off Schneider's best time.

The 20-car field has one more hour of free practice, before a single hour of qualifying at 1400 (1300 BST) to determine the race one grid.

Free practice, session 1: leading times

1 Jo Winkelhock, Opel, 1m25.845s
2 Uwe Alzen, Opel, 1m25.978s
3 Timo Scheider, Opel, 1m26.080s
4 Manuel Reuter, Opel, 1m26.149
5 Eric Helary, Opel, 1m26.298s
6 Thomas Jager, Mercedes, 1m26.378s
7 Christian Menzel, Opel, 1m26.402s
8 Marcel Fassler, Mercedes, 1m26.482s
9 Michael Bartels, Opel, 1m26.707s
10 Laurent Aiello, Audi, 1m26.992s

selected others
11 Darren Turner, Mercedes, 1m27.095s
14 James Thompson, Audi, 1m28.146s

Thursday test: leading times

1 Bernd Schneider, Mercedes, 1m24.935s
2 Marcel Tiemann, Mercedes, 1m25.237s
3 Christian Menzel, Opel, 1m25.280s
4 Klaus Ludwig, Mercedes, 1m25.323s
5 Uwe Alzen, Opel, 1m25.503s
6 Peter Dumbreck, Mercedes, 1m25.523s
7 Eric Helary, Opel, 1m25.584s
8 Manuel Reuter, Opel, 1m25.628s
9 Pedro Lamy, Mercedes, 1m25.650s
10 Marcel Fassler, Mercedes, 1m25.665s

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