Qualifying: Schneider pips Alesi

Alesi's 49.081s lap in his AMG Mercedes CLK looked to have sealed pole, but Schneider, who was last to make his attempt, was not to be denied and grabbed the top spot by 0.090s, despite being slower than Jean through the first sector.

"I took a cautious approach to the first corner," said Schneider. "But the rest of the lap I was happy with."

Alesi was pleased with his front row slot, having struggled to get to grips with the Super Pole format that has been adopted for this season. Christijan Albers was third fastest, ahead of the fourth AMG Merc of Marcel Fassler.

Mattias Ekstrom was best of the rest for Audi in fifth, ahead of Abt team-mate Laurent Aiello. Peter Dumbreck was once again the fastest of the Opel posse, but a mistake at the first corner flatspotted his tyres and restricted him to seventh.

That was still better than his Opel colleagues Joachim Winkelhock and Manuel Reuter, while Christian Abt rounded out the top 10 even through his Audi lost power on its flying lap and coasted across the line over 11secs off pole position.


Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 48.991s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.081s
Christijan Albers (NL) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.294s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.348s
Mattias Ekstrom (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.387s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.563s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 49.696s
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupe, 49.772s
Manuel Reuter (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 49.959s
Christian Abt (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m00.780s