Warm-up: Winkelhock sets the pace
Opel and Audi continue to battle it out at the head of the times at the Sachsenring, sharing out the first five places between them in the warm-up. Jo Winkelhock was quickest, outpacing pole sitter Laurent Aiello by just over a tenth of a second
"The car is fine," said Winkelhock, who was involved in a massive shunt at the start at Donington, which damaged his Astra to the extent that the team thought it might have to build him a new car. "Considering how bad it was, it's not so bad."
Karl Wendlinger was third fastest for Audi, ahead of the second Opel of Timo Schneider. Uwe Alzen was the fastest Mercedes driver in sixth, but he was just three tenths off Winkelhock's pace in a competitive session in which 0.6s covered the top 10.
Front row starter Alain Menu was a surprisingly lowly 12th, while Yves Olivier, who lines up fourth, was 1.3s off the pace in 18th. Both drivers went for a safe set-up in order to conserve tyres, too safe it appears and they'll be reverting to a configuration closer to their qualifying spec for the first race.
Joachim Winkelhock (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé 1m20.409s
Laurent Aiello (F) Abt-Audi TT-R 1m20.560s
Karl Wendlinger (A) Abt-Audi TT-R 1m20.698s
Timo Scheider (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé 1m20.744s
Martin Tomczyk (D) Abt-Audi TT-R 1m20.792s
Uwe Alzen (D) AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m20.933s
Christian Abt (F) Abt-Audi TT-R 1m20.981s
Manuel Reuter (D) Phoenix Opel Astra V8 Coupé 1m21.035s
Michael Bartels (D) Holzer Opel Astra V8 Coupé 1m21.124s
Christijan Albers (NL) Rosberg Mercedes-Benz CLK 1m21.133s
Share Or Save This Story
History repeats as 70th anniversary of Mallory Park is celebrated
How Sutton's BTCC steamroller overcame Snetterton challenges
Rossi faces key decision: Who will replace di Giannantonio at VR46?
Red Bull reacts to Verstappen’s criticism – why ‘I told you’ moments are needed
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments