Qualifying: Bernd in league of his own

The Scot had the audacity to nab pole from the German during the middle of the session, but Schneider - who can wrap up the title here tomorrow - put the young upstart in his place with a 1m28.713s lap.

"I just found the time in the circuit as a whole," said Schneider. "I've had a lot of experience of this circuit with AMG, it looks quite easy at first but it's difficult to find any specific advantage. I wouldn't say any one corner makes a difference, but I was surprised by the size of my advantage."

Dumbreck stayed second fastest despite a late attack from fellow Merc driver Uwe Alzen, who failed by just 0.008secs to grab a front row starting slot.

"We are all very similar, and Bernd is just ahead - but he is the best driver in the universe!" quipped Dumbreck.

Alzen said: "It's important to have three Mercedes at the front, but we won't give him [Schneider] any presents. We'll race hard, but without being unfair."

Laurent Aiello was fourth fastest for the Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R squad. The Kempten outfit was frustratingly close to the pace of the leaders but just not quite on it.

"I think we're in a good position to score a lot of points this weekend," said Aiello. "It's not a very easy circuit here, and I don't think our car is as good as it was at the Nurburgring, but we've been going faster all the time. We seemed to lose a bit of grip in qualifying over this morning's session, which was strange."

The Frenchman headed young German Audi team mate Martin Tomczyk, who fared rather better than of late in fifth. Bernd Maylander continued his recent run of form with the sixth fastest time, just shading the top of Opel of Euroteam's Alain Menu.

"I'm very pleased," said Menu. "I think we've shown we're right there. I'm only three-tenths off the front row and I think I could have found another tenth. I've had no problems this weekend so far, which is promising."

Mattias Ekstrom (Audi), Marcel Fassler (Mercedes) and Michael Bartels (Opel) rounded out the top 10.

Christian Abt (Audi) languished in 13th position in the times after two off-track excursions, while David Saelens (Mercedes) brought out the yellow flags near the end of the session with a spin into the gravel at the final corner. He starts 17th, two spots ahead of Team Rosberg team mate Darren Turner.



Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m28.713s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m29.008s
Uwe Alzen, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m29.106s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.145s
Martin Tomczyk, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.341s
Bernd Maylander, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 1m29.349s
Alain Menu, 2001 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.363s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.530s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m29.599s
Michael Bartels, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.623s
Timo Scheider, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.654s
Patrick Huisman, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 1m29.655s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.681s
Thomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m29.757s
Christijan Albers, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m29.965s
Manuel Reuter, 2001 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.021s
David Saelens, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 1m30.299s
Joachim Winkelhock, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.386s
Darren Turner, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 1m30.423s
Yves Olivier, 2000 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.525s
Hubert Haupt, 2000 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.699s
Peter Mamerow, 2000 Mamerow Opel Astra Coupe, 1m31.695s