Sachsenring: Aiello wins with ease

Aiello's win was pretty straightforward in spite of the fact that he had to nurse his tyres throughout. Although Alain Menu made the better start from second on the grid, Aiello staunchly defended his line into the first corner and that was that. By the end of the first lap the TT was 1.8s clear of Menu's Astra, and that was as near as anyone came to Aiello again.

"I saw that Bernd was pushing as hard as always at the end," said Aiello. "He made me push when I didn't want to, so you could say that it was a tough race."

In the early stages Schneider was all over the back of Menu, but found his attempts to make a move sternly rebuffed. With this in mind Mercedes decided to call its man in early, and a good stop of 6.6s seconds put him ahead of the Swiss, who pitted a lap later.

A swift move on Bernd Maylander, who ran as high as second before he pitted late, gave Schneider a chance to pull away from Menu. With Maylander showing no inclination of letting the Astra through, Schneider was clear and a series of quick laps gave brief hope that he might be able to challenge Aiello at the front. However, the Audi was able to up its pace seemingly at will and the gap only dropped below 2.9s when Aiello eased off on the final lap.

In the closing stages Marcel Fassler put a good move on Jo Winkelhock for fourth and closed in on Menu, who had struggled with his second set of tyres. But the CLK driver ran out of laps, so Menu claimed his first ever DTM podium and Opel's first since 2000.

Martin Tomczyk had a race he'd sooner forget. He almost stalled at the start and dropped back into the pack before finding drive. He then banged doors with Yves Olivier through two corners, before the Frenchman was hit from behind by Mattias Ekstrom and sent spinning to the tail of the field.

Tomczyk was again in the thick of the action after his pitstop when he cut across the grass on the pitlane exit into the path of Jean Alesi. The former F1 star was left with nowhere to go and slammed into the TT, which resulted in both cars retiring on the spot.

Peter Dumbreck took advantage of the carnage going on ahead of him to claim a commendable 10th place in his 2001-spec car.


Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R 28m37.936s
Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK +1.4s
Alain Menu (CH) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé +19.8s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Bend CLK +20.1s
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé +21.5s
Timo Scheider (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé +21.9s
Mattias Ekström (S) Abt-Audi TT-R +22.4s
Christijan Albers (NL) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK +24.1s
Uwe Alzen (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK +29.3s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK +35.0s