Reuter: Opel woes may be unique to Hockenheim

Reuter, runner-up in the 2000 DTM, qualified sixth in a damp, then drying qualifying session. But the Opel ace said he believed that was down to luck after two days of free practice in which the marque has struggled to get within a second of Mercedes' benchmark.

"We said before qualifying that we'd be lucky to get into the top 10 - you just had to look at the morning times to realise that," he said. "But we profited from the weather conditions and from getting our timing right and being on the track when conditions where at their best, right at the end."

The unseasonably cold conditions at Hockenheim - snow showers are forecast for Sunday's raceday - have been blamed for part of the Astra's inability to get its Dunlop control tyres up to a working temperature, but Reuter believes the tight nature of much of the short circuit may be a bigger factor.

"For sure, the cold is a problem in getting the tyres working here," he said, "but at the A1-Ring in testing, we had the same sort of temperatures and we didn't have these problems.

"What we have to hope is that it's not the package of the car itself," he added, "and I don't really think it is. We know Mercedes runs more downforce than us, and we know Audi has more downforce this year, and this circuit is special and definitely needs downforce. What we have to hope is that we haven't gone a little too far the other way."

The problem is exaggerated by the low-grip nature of the Hockenheim track surface, which means that a downforce deficiency cannot be partially masked by mechanical grip.

"We probably need three more weeks of testing to be fully ready," said Reuter, "but because testing is limited, we are just going to have to work extra hard at the races. We are caught in a bit of a circle and we have to keep going round and round until we find a solution."

With a solution unlikely to be found before Sunday's race, Reuter says he is hoping for mixed conditions on raceday - the DTM introduces mandatory pitstops for the first time this season, and the 1996 ITC champion believes a wet/dry race will help Opel the most.

"Mixed conditions will certainly be best for us," he said, "but we must wait and see."