Saturday practice: Schneider still top
Mercedes and Abt Audi reaffirmed their control of the sharp end of the DTM grid in the final free practice session before qualifying at the A1-Ring. But Friday's surprise package, Opel's Timo Scheider, showed he shouldn't be discounted by setting the sixth best time in the hour-long session
Bernd Schneider was top of the pile in his D2 AMG Mercedes CLK, 0.134s ahead of the Warsteiner-backed example of Uwe Alzen, who in turn had out-paced Laurent Aiello's Abt Audi TT-R by just 0.165s.
Spookily, the progress of the Audi around the track was accompanied by strange, humpback whale-like whistles and moans as the resonance of the car's exhaust interacted with the circuit's crash barriers. It only happened with the Audis. Weird...
Peter Dumbreck's D2 Merc and DTM rookie Martin Tomczyk's Audi completed the top five, with Scheider's 2001-spec Opel Astra V8 Coupe rounding out the top half-dozen with a lap 0.537s shy of Schneider.
Behind Scheider, three more 2001-spec Astras filled out the bottom half of the top 10, Michael Bartels heading Manuel Reuter and Alain Menu. But the form of Jo Winkelhock, the man in the fifth and final 2001-spec Astra, again served only to confuse: the Swabian ended the session a disgruntled 18th to continue his up and down season.
Bernd Maylander's CLK completed the top 10, with some big names a lot lower down the order than is the norm. Christian Abt was only 13th and Marcel Fassler a most unusual 14th.
In the battle of the 2000-spec Mercs, Christijan Albers came out top in 15th, with Tomas Jager 16th, Formula 3000 racer David Saelens 17th and Darren Turner a disappointed 19th.
A single 45-minute session of qualifying at 12:05 BST (13:05 local time) will determine the grid for the re-born DTM's first 'overseas' jaunt.
Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m28.717s
Uwe Alzen, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m28.851s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.016s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m29.056s
Martin Tomczyk, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.192s
Timo Scheider, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.254s
Michael Bartels, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.438s
Manuel Reuter, 2001 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.486s
Alain Menu, 2001 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 1m29.511s
Bernd Maylander, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 1m29.543s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m29.598s
Patrick Huisman, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 1m29.996s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R 1m30.066s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m30.139s
Christijan Albers, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m30.285s
Tomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m30.309s
David Saelens, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 1m30.333s
Joachim Winkelhock, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.349s
Darren Turner, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 1m30.354s
Hubert Haupt, 2000 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 1m30.727s
Yves Olivier, 2000 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 1m31.237s
Peter Mamerow, 2000 Mamerow Opel Astra Coupe, 1m31.375s
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