Qual: Pole for Alesi

Paffett laid the gauntlet with a lap of 48.720s, but Alesi pulled out all the stops on his single lap qualifying effort. Despite a relatively slow start, Alesi was superb through the second half of the lap and took pole by a tenth of a second.

Christijan Albers will start third in his Merc but, more important, the man he is tied with for the lead of the championship, Audi's Mattias Ekstrom, will start ninth after a disastrous session. He suffered a puncture on his Super Pole lap, although the damage on the right-rear of his A4 suggested that he'd possibly hit the wall on his out-lap.

Timo Scheider produced an excellent lap to place fourth for Opel, ahead of Bernd Schneider (Mercedes), Tom Kristensen (Audi) and the surprise of the session, Stefan Mucke, in his year-old Mercedes. He will start seventh, ahead of Christian Abt (Audi), Ekstrom and Markus Winkelhock (Mercedes).

Jean Alesi, Mercedes C-Class, 48.609s
Gary Paffett, Mercedes C-Class, 48.720s
Christijan Albers, Mercedes C-Class, 48.820s
Timo Scheider, Opel Vectra GTS, 48.855s
Bernd Schneider, Mercedes C-Class, 49.036s
Tom Kristensen, Audi A4, 49.060s
Stefan Mucke, Mercedes CLK, 49.107s
Christian Abt, Audi A4, 49.511s
Mattias Ekstrom, Audi A4, 49.524s
Markus Winkelhock, Mercedes CLK, 49.731s