Warm-up: It's the AA - Alzen and Abt...
Warsteiner AMG Mercedes driver Uwe Alzen was the only man to go sub-1m24s in the morning warm-up for Oschersleben's third round of the DTM. But three Audis in the top seven proved that the Three-Pointed Star still has a tough fight on its hands to regain the upper hand
Christian Abt was second fastest in his TT-R, with pole-sitter Marcel Fassler's Warsteiner Merc edging reigning champion Bernd Schneider for third.
Mattias Ekstrom was second fastest of the Audis, two spots ahead of front row starter Laurent Aiello's example. In between them, Peter Dumberck's D2 Merc put all four of the works AMG cars in the top six.
DTM returnee Marcel Tiemann, a last-minute replacement for the injured Bernd Maylander, was ninth quickest in his Eischmann Mercedes - that despite only getting to grips with the machine for the very first time in Saturday's official qualifying session.
Good news for Opel came in the form of Yves Olivier putting his 2000-spec Team Phoenix car 10th, but 1.122s behind Alzen. The Astra V8 Coupes continue to struggle to use their tyres properly, but could pull off a minor surprise by pitting late (as seen at the Nurburgring) and waiting for the unexpected to bring out the red flags.
Team Rosberg's Darren Turner suffered technical problems that left him 19th fastest, one spot ahead of Alain Menu's Euroteam Opel. But at least the Swiss was faster than his 2000-spec equipped team mate Huber Haupt this time around.
DTM debutant David Saelens, who had his times disallowed in qualifying for exceeding the maximum permitted 12 laps, has been allowed to start today's races. He was 13th fastest in the warm-up - six places higher than team mate Turner.
In a change to the timetable to accommodate live TV in Germany, the nine-lap sprint race to decide the main race grid starts at 13:04 BST (14:04 local time), with the 28-lap pit stop race getting underway at 13:43 BST.
Uwe Alzen, , 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m23.905s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R 1m24.170s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 1m24.342s
Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m24.425s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m24.469s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 1m24.606s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 1m24.615s
Tomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 1m24.876s
Marcel Tiemann, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 1m24.980s
Yves Olivier, 2000 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 1m25.120s
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