Qualifying: Reuter beats Alesi to pole

Mercedes-Benz star Alesi made a brave decision early on in the session to use slicks, despite a slippery surface and continual spots of rain. He strung together a sequence of laps to generate heat in his tyres before lapping in 1m38.770s, and then had a nervous wait of 15 minutes to see if anyone could beat it.

Reuter was the only man who could, lapping his Opel Astra in 1m38.703s - just 0.067s quicker.

"I crossed my fingers and hoped no-one would beat it, but I found out I have no friends in this series!" quipped Alesi, before cheekily adding, "It's a shame for the fans, because they're only going to see me overtake one car tomorrow..."

Reuter will have something to say about that, and timed his final run to perfection to snatch pole: "We had planned three runs and wanted to time the last one as late as possible. It is a perfect result."

Opel's Alain Menu equalled Alesi's time, but will start third: "It's a shame I didn't go just a little bit faster, because then we would have an Opel front row," he rued.

Martin Tomczyk was fourth fastest and the first of the Abt Sportsline Audi TT-Rs: "I only made one fast lap, but it was a good lap. It was a bit of a lottery out there, but the car was really fast."

Opel pairing Timo Scheider and Joachim Winkelhock filled out the top six places. Britain's Peter Dumbreck will start 13th in his year-old Mercedes, but the illustrious trio of Bernd Schneider (Mercedes), Laurent Aiello (Audi) and Uwe Alzen (Mercedes) will start from 16th, 17th and 18th respectively, as they were all caught out by the tricky conditions.


Manuel Reuter (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupe, 1m38.703s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m38.770s
Alain Menu (CH) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m38.770s
Martin Tomczyk (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m39.361s
Timo Scheider (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m39.362s
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m39.376s
Mattias Ekström (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m39.404s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Bend CLK, 1m39.498s
Patrick Huisman (NL) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m39.846s
Karl Wendlinger (A) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m39.908s
Thomas Jäger (D) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.025s
Bernd Maylander (D) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.084s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.235s
Christijan Albers (NL) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.298s
Michael Bartels (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m40.351s
Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.374s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m40.436s
Uwe Alzen (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.546s
Yves Olivier (B) Eutoteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m40.717s
Christian Abt (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m40.754s
Stefan Mücke (D) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.961s