Testing: Opel starts brightly

Reuter lapped his Vectra GTS around the East German circuit in 1m21.619s, nearly two-tenths clear of Fassler. Christijan Albers was third quickest for Mercedes as he bids to get his title bid back on track. Peter Dumbreck was fourth fastest in his Opel, having topped the session this morning.

"The car has been very fast from the outset," said Dumbreck. "It looks like we've managed to continue our upward trend from the Nurburgring."

Points leader Mattias Ekstrom was, as usual, the best placed Audi driver in fifth. The high-downforce A4 was expected to suit the twisty Oschersleben layout, so expect him to feature more prominently as the weekend progresses.

His team-mate Martin Tomczyk was sixth fastest, ahead of Timo Scheider (Opel), Tom Kristensen (Audi) and Bernd Schneider (Mercedes). Recent series pacesetter Gary Paffett was down in tenth in his Mercedes, over half a second off the fastest time.

Ex-Formula 1 stars Jean Alesi (Mercedes) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Opel) fared even worse. Alesi was 14th fastest, while Frentzen suffered a big off at the first corner, fortunately without hitting anything, and was 16th. H-HF was 1.1secs off the pace.