Warm-up: Opels splash, others crash

After a weekend of fine autumnal weather, the heavens opened last night and it's been raining ever since. The circuit was soaked for the 30-minute session, and a number of drivers overstepped the limit in the treacherous conditions.

Although they were expected to struggle in the rain, Opel led the way for virtually the whole of the session. Timo Scheider wound up half a second clear of the surprise second fastest man, Hubert Haupt in a year-old Astra.

Today's pole sitter Michael Bartels was third, ahead of Manuel Reuter - making it an Opel 1-2-3-4 at the top of the timesheets.

Heading the Mercedes chase was Patrick Huisman, the form man of the second half of the season, ahead of Darren Turner, McLaren's F1 tester revelling in the slippery conditions which masked some of the deficiencies of his 2000-spec Merc.

The top Audi was that of Laurent Aiello, who threw a minor strop after qualifying when none of his team mates gave him a tow, in seventh. He was one of many to visit the Hockenheim GP circuits run-off areas.

The first major casualty of the session, however, was champion-elect Schneider, who ploughed into the tyres on the entry to the Stadium section, wrecking the front end of his AMG Mercedes. That trick was repeated soon after by Alain Menu (Opel) and Thomas Jager (Mercedes), while Joachim Winkelhock (Opel) chose the Sachskurve for his excursion into the gravel.

Obviously not wanting to feel left out, Schneider's team mate Peter Dumbreck also gave the AMG crew some work to do by crashing his CLK on the Stadium section's penultimate right-hander.

No major damage was done, however, and all will be on the grid for the qualifying race at 14.28 local time (13.28 BST).



Timo Scheider, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m24.236s
Hubert Haupt, 2000 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 2m24.741s
Michael Bartels, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m24.791s
Manuel Reuter, 2001 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 2m24.873s
Patrick Huisman, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 2m24.968s
Darren Turner, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 2m25.338s
Laurent Aiello, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m25.355s
Alain Menu, 2001 Euroteam Opel Astra Coupe, 2m25.794s
Christian Abt, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m25.806s
Joachim Winkelhock, 2001 Holzer Opel Astra Coupe, 2m25.963s
Uwe Alzen, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 2m26.054s
Bernd Schneider, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 2m26.100s
Christijan Albers, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 2m26.169s
David Saelens, 2000 Rosberg Mercedes CLK, 2m26.170s
Marcel Fassler, 2001 Warsteiner Mercedes CLK, 2m26.498s
Thomas Jager, 2000 Persson Mercedes CLK, 2m27.222s
Bernd Maylander, 2001 Eschmann-Manthey Mercedes CLK, 2m27.586s
Martin Tomczyk, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m27.920s
Mattias Ekstrom, 2001 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R, 2m28.727s
Peter Dumbreck, 2001 D2 Mercedes CLK, 2m28.747s
Yves Olivier, 2000 Phoenix Opel Astra Coupe, 2m28.795s
Peter Mamerow, 2000 Mamerow Opel Astra Coupe, 2m31.297s