Thursday testing: Opel's late boost

The test started wet but gradually dried out, and although Scheider's 58.43s lap was half a second slower than Peter Dumbreck's fastest time in his Mercedes from earlier this month, this was more than enough to top the session in his Holzer-run Astra Coupe.

The top Mercedes was the AMG CLK of DTM debutant Jean Alesi, who was third fastest on 58.74s, just six hundredths quicker than Marcel Fassler. Reigning champion Bernd Schneider, who is bidding for this third successive DTM title this year, was fifth fastest.

The top Audi pilot was Martin Tomczyk, sixth fastest overall and just ahead of the Red Bull-liveried car of Karl Wendlinger.

Two high-profile drivers noticeable by their absence were Opel's Manuel Reuter and Audi's Laurent Aiello. Reuter suffered a succession of small technical problems, while Aiello was stranded with clutch failure.

Official practice at Hockenheim begins tomorrow (Friday).


Timo Scheider (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 58.43s
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 58.59s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 58.74s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Bend CLK, 58.80s
Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 58.98s
Martin Tomczyk (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 59.13s
Karl Wendlinger (A) Abt-Audi TT-R, 59.17s
Uwe Alzen (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.17s
Michael Bartels (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 59.23s
Christian Abt (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 59.27s
Mattias Ekström (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 59.32s
Christijan Albers (NL) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.49s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.52s
Alain Menu (CH) Euroteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 59.58s
Thomas Jäger (D) Persson Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.67s
Marcel Tiemann (D) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.82s
Patrick Huisman (NL) Manthey Mercedes-Benz CLK, 59.90s
Stefan Mücke (D) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 1m00.00s
Yves Olivier (B) Eutoteam Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 1m00.78s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, no time
Manuel Reuter (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupe, no time