Warm-up: Albers top by 0.001sec
Christijan Albers topped the warm-up for today's (Sunday) fifth round of the DTM at the famous Norisring circuit in Germany, just beating his championship leading AMG Mercedes team-mate Bernd Schneider by one thousandth of a second
The main talking point of the morning, however, was a scary incident that involved a major fuel spill in the Abt Sportsline pit. Christian Abt's car was waved away from a practice pitstop while the fuel hose was still attached. Abt departed, dragging the entire metal fuel rig with him along the pit lane until he stopped at the exit, leaving a trail of fuel in his wake from the spilled tank.
Another pit foul up meant Manuel Reuter's Opel left the pits with a loose right-rear wheel. He attempted to crawl back to the pits, but the wheel fell off at the Dutzendteich hairpin and clattered into a Mercedes before bouncing into the Armco.
Despite the dramas, the session continued regardless. Reigning champ Laurent Aiello showed that he can be a contender today in his Abt Audi with the third quickest time, just 0.05s down on Albers. The remaining AMG Mercs of Marcel Fassler and Jean Alesi were next up, ahead of the top Opel of Peter Dumbreck. The Scot blotted his copybook by grazing the infamous wall on the exit of the Steintribune-S, which has claimed many a DTM car over the years.
Fellow Brit Gary Paffett was an excellent eighth in his year-old Mercedes, setting an identical time to Abt, who recovered well after his problems in the pit.
Christijan Albers (NL) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.205s
Bernd Schneider (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.206s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.253s
Marcel Fässler (CH) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.391s
Jean Alesi (F) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.568s
Peter Dumbreck (GB) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé, 49.572s
Christian Abt (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.618s
Gary Paffett (GB) 2002 Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK, 49.618s
Mattias Ekstrom (S) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.676s
Martin Tomczyk (D) Abt-Audi TT-R, 49.685s
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