Saturday practice: Menu's the man

But the smile returned to his face after winning the FIA GT round in a Prodrive Ferrari at Jarama in Spain last weekend, and this morning (Saturday) he set the quickest time in a DTM session for the first time at Hockenheim.

He topped this morning's one-hour practice session by a whopping 0.354s in his Euroteam-run Astra V8 to outpace the leading AMG Mercedes-Benz of Peter Dumbreck. Timo Scheider, who topped the times yesterday in his Holzer-run Astra, was third quickest.

"The lap was okay," he said. "We are on the pace on the straights, and the Astra is also good on the kerbs."

Dumbreck said: "I am happy with the car, we just need to make a few minor changes."

As in yesterday's session, Patrick Huisman (Mercedes) was fourth fastest, ahead of the Abt Junior squad of Martin Tomczyk (one of many to spin during the session) and Mattias Ekstrom.

Laurent Aiello, who has a slim chance of grabbing second in the championship, was ninth fastest, just ahead of the man he needs to beat convincingly this weekend, Uwe Alzen.

Four Mercs, three Opels and three Audis make up the top 10 positions. Champion-elect Bernd Schneider, meanwhile, was a surprisingly lacklustre 16th, 1.2secs off the pace.

The cars are all running in ultra-low downforce spec' to deal with Hockenheim's long straights, but that means they are getting very skittish in the corners leading to a number of off-track excursions already this weekend. Expect more of the same when qualifying kicks off at 13.05 local time (12.05 BST).



Alain Menu, 2001 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 2m06.606s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 2m06.971s
Timo Scheider, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m07.041s
Patrick Huisman, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 2m07.044s
Martin Tomczyk, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m07.222s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m07.373s
Bernd Maylander, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 2m07.416s
Michael Bartels, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m07.430s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m07.436s
Uwe Alzen, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 2m07.445s
Manuel Reuter, 2001 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 2m07.502s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m07.605s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 2m07.679s
Joachim Winkelhock, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m07.738s
David Saelens, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 2m07.776s
Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 2m07.831s
Thomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 2m08.132s
Yves Olivier, 2000 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 2m08.228s
Darren Turner, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 2m08.326s
Christijan Albers, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 2m08.489s
Hubert Haupt, 2000 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 2m08.773s
Peter Mamerow, 2000 Mamerow Opel Astra Coupe, 2m10.622s