Warm-up: Fassler fastest

The re-jigging meant that the warm-up started an hour early but this didn't put Marcel Fassler off and he sprinted around the Norisring in 49.507s, crossing the line just as the flag fell, to end the session at the head of the times.

The 25-minute session was a Mercedes-Audi affair with CLKs and TTs filling the top six places. Pole sitter Mattias Ekstrom continued his strong form to take second, ahead of Laurent Aiello, Uwe Alzen, Bernd Schneider and Christian Abt.

Jo Winkelhock was the fastest Opel in seventh, but such is the competitiveness of the field here that he was just 0.3s shy of Fassler. Yves Olivier shunted his Astra midway through the session, which brought his session to a premature end, but he still finished ahead of Peter Dumbreck in the times as the Scot continues to struggle around the start/stop bumpy track.


Marcel Fassler Mercedes-Benz CLK 49.507s
Mattias Ekstrom Abt-Audi TT-R 49.573s
Laurent Aiello Abt-Audi TT-R 49.677s
Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK 49.741s
Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 49.794s
Christian Abt Abt-Audi TT-R 49.818s