Preview: Fair play in the sand dunes?

At the previous round at the A1-Ring in Austria, Aiello felt Mercedes drivers singled him out for rough tactics, an accusation the Three-Pointed Star denies. AMG Mercedes star Bernd Schneider did enough that day to ensure the title fight remains open, but he too needs to outscore Aiello by seven points this weekend to take it down to the Hockenheim finale on October 6.

"More than ever, we will be racing as a closed team and we will do everything to secure the title," said Aiello. "I don't necessarily have to win the race in the Netherlands, so I can take it easy and keep focused on the championship."

Schneider knows it will be tough to beat the Abt Sportsline squad in Holland, but his sentiment that "Zandvoort suits the Audis, so Laurent has a good chance of claiming the title there" smacks of gamesmanship, so expect further mind games as the weekend unfolds.

As for driving standards Mercedes has pledged to fight fair, although Abt Sportsline chief Hans-Jurgen Abt says Merc's numerical advantage is "like a football game where they have 10 players but we only have five".

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug said: "The racing will be hard, no doubt about it. The way they were fighting in Austria was the limit, we shouldn't go any further than that. We feel that we have an obligation to fair play and we don't want to overdo things at Zandvoort either."

The fun starts with free practice on Friday, and autosport.com will have all the latest news as the gloves come off in Holland.