Qual race: Ekstrom makes his mark

Ekstrom's race looked serene and unhurried in stark contrast to the stockcar race that was taking place behind him. Right from the start there was bumping and banging with Karl Wendlinger, Marcel Fassler and Timo Scheider trying to force three cars into a space only big enough for two.

Fassler, caught in the middle, bounced off one car and into the other, tipped Scheider into the barriers before sending Wendlinger into a separate spin. Body panels flew and shattered over the track, while further back in the pack Patrick Huisman was assaulting the rear of Tomas Jager's Mercedes.

With carnage practically stretching the width of the start/finish straight there was little option other than to deploy the Safety Car. Ekstrom led the pack around, followed by Uwe Alzen, who made a fantastic start and out-muscled Bernd Schneider to grab second. Laurent Aiello held fourth ahead of Jean Alesi, who gained a spot when Christian Abt spun in the middle of the chicane.

At the end of lap five the Safety Car pulled off and Ekstrom caught the rest knapping to sprint across the line with a lead of almost a second. A flying first lap extended his advantage, but when Alzen et al finally woke up the Swede was in a lead that he never showed any sign of relinquishing.

Schneider hassled Alzen for second without ever looking like making a pass, while Aiello drove a controlled race to play a watching brief in fourth. Alesi could not quite match the pace of the cars ahead and duly took fifth.

Further back there was yet more action with Abt right in the thick of things. As he tried to fight his way back through the field after his earlier spin he ran slightly wide at the chicane. Michael Bartels saw a gap and went for it, but got on the power too soon and his Astra started to slide. Abt kept his foot down and pushed Bartels down the straight with his car still sideways. As the former F1 man found some forward momentum he started to straighten up but not before he had rammed the Audi forcefully into the barrier on the opposite side of the track!


Mattias Ekstrom Abt-Audi TT-R 15m46.270s
Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK +1.720s
Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK +2.312s
Laurent Aiello Abt-Audi TT-R +2.964s
Jean Alesi Mercedes-Benz CLK +6.184s
Jo Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 Coupe +7.313s
Tomas Jager Mercedes-Benz CLK +9.017s
Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 Coupe +11.392s
Stephan Mucke Mercedes-Benz CLK +12.529s
Christian Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK +13.064s