Qualifying: Schneider storms to pole

Schneider was fastest in the opening session that decides the order for the top 10 shoot-out, lapping in 1m39.761s. But he blitzed that with a mighty 1m39.437s effort that was by far the quickest lap of the weekend.

Mattias Ekstrom will line up alongside him on the front row in his Audi, but his effort was almost half a second shy of Schneider's. Peter Dumbreck makes it three manufacturers in the top three spots for Opel, but his time was 0.677s slower than the pole.

Marcel Fassler (Mercedes) will start fourth, ahead of Opel's Timo Scheider and Alain Menu. Laurent Aiello, now driving Martin Tomczyk's car after his big shunt yesterday wrecked his own, was seventh after a big slide on a left-hander.

Jean Alesi was a ragged eighth for Mercedes, but still managed to outdo team-mate Christijan Albers, the series leader producing an awful lap that was 1.7secs down on Schneider's. Karl Wendlinger was 10th after almost going off at the first corner.

Hero to zero of the day was Jeroen Bleekemolen, who was second fastest in testing this morning but went off into the gravel on his first flyer in qualifying. He failed to recover and missed the cut for the Super Pole, as did the other Turn 1 crasher from yesterday, Christian Abt in Peter Terting's Audi.


Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m39.437.017s
Mattias Ekstrom (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m39.930s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m40.114s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.204s
Timo Scheider (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m40.331s
Alain Menu (CH) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m40.366s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m40.435s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m40.535s
Christijan Albers (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m41.157s
Karl Wendlinger (A) Abt-Audi TT-R, 1m41.583s