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Hockenheim

ARCOR

22/04/2001

Full Report

Easy For Schneider And Mercedes

Bernd Schneider started the new DTM season at Hockenheim where he left off last year: by winning easily both the qualifying heat and the main race, even if he allowed Marcel Faessler to close the gap in the dying laps of the main race. The weekend was totally dominated by Mercedes, the CLKs from Stuttgart occupied the first six places. Laurent Aiello in the best non-Mercedes entry followed in seventh position in his Abt-Audi TT-R. Opel did not have the faintest chance of staying with Mercdes during the whole weekend. Timo Scheider finished 11th in the highest placed Astra.

Qualifying:

There was quite a drama for Bernd Schneider at the beginning of the session, when he hit Darren Turner's Mercedes in the back when the British driver was trying his brakes. Schneider did not expect Turner to slow down so drastically: "Testing brakes is one thing, but doing it this way is another. I don't think this was really necessary." The result of this action was a 40 minutes repair of Schneider's car, leaving him 20 minutes to go for a time. The new "Formula 1 -type" format of the qualifying session allows only 12 timed laps, so the damage was not too bad as with lap times of about 60 seconds, Schneider could still use all his laps. In fact, it turned out to be of advantage to wait until the last moment as the weather was getting better (the session started in the wet) and the track dried out near the end of the proceedings.

The other Mercedes drivers gambled and hoped the track would dry and they were right in doing so, whereas Opel and Audi did quite a lot of laps in wet or semi-wet conditions. 10 minutes before the session was over we had a duel between Schneider and Huisman for pole position. Bernd did a 1'06, Huisman 1'05, Schneider got down to 1'04 as did Huisman only to run out of laps with his last 1'03.812 only good for 10th spot in the end. Now the track was completely dry, Schneider continued to finish the session on pole with a 1'00.828 in front of Dumbreck, Jaeger, Lamy (above, left)and Turner. Both British drivers were very satisfied with the result: "I waited as long as possible and was really lucky to achieve a good time on the trying track," said Dumbreck. Darren Turner actually did his best ever qualifying of his DTM career. The Opel drivers, especially Manuel Reuter (below), were troubled by a lack of grip. This was confirmed by Opel's Volker Strycek at the press conference.

“We were significantly faster in testing here than we were this weekend, so now we analyse our information and we find the solution," said Herr Strycek. "We know the tyre is not the problem and we know we will work hard to solve the problem. We'll be back."

For the record, Dunlop have not responded with a 'softer compound control tyre', as suggested in the DTM Preview. Rather, they have improved the cornering performance with a change in construction. The existing compound is still used to avoid the risk of blistering, wearing out or `graining up' in adverse circumstances.

Laurent Aiello was the best Audi driver in 7th position and was happy with the result: "We are a lot better than last year", he said, "especially if you consider that my car was only rolled out yesterday. A fine perfromance of a totally new car." Another Mercedes driver to miscalculate the situation was Uwe Alzen, who was leading five minutes before the end, but, like Huisman, ran out of laps and dropped down to 8th place. Opel drivers Jo Winkelhock and Michael Bartels (his Astra, left, was about to change colour) in the Holzer cars were very disappointed to not even finish in the top 15. They also wasted their laps in the early stages.

Qualifying Times:

1 Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'00.828
2 Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'00.991
3 Thomas Jäger Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'01.500
4 Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'01.787
5 Darren Turner Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'02.244
6 Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 1'02.550
7 Laurent Aiello Audi TT-R 1'02.715
8 Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'03.415
9 Alain Menu Opel Astra V8 1'03.301
10 Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'03.812
11 Bernd Mayländer Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'03.886
12 Christian Abt Audi TT-R 1'03.947
13 Marcel Faessler Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'04.296
14 Christijan Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'04.866
15 Hubert Haupt Opel Astra V8 1'05.288
16 Timo Scheider Opel Astra V8 1'05.666
17 Peter Mamerow Opel Astra V8 1'05.693
18 Martin Tomczyk Audi TT-R 1'08.785
19 Michael Bartels Opel Astra V8 1'08.902
20 Joachim Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 1'10'142
21 Yves Olivier Opel Astra V8 1'10.411
22 Mathias Ekstoem Audi TT-R No time

Warm-up:

Weather conditions changed overnight and it was sunny and dry during the morning warm-up session. All teams practiced the obligatory pit stop with a change of all four tyres. Schneider again topped the list with a time of 1'03.097 followed by Alzen, Faessler, Maylaender and Dumbreck. Abt (left) was sixth in the (noticeably longer wheelbase) Audi in front of Huisman and Reuter.

Qualifiying Heat: (35 KM)

Bernd Schneider ran away from pole with this short qualifying race. Winkelhock and Ekström pitted after lap 1, the Opel driver retiring on the spot, the Audi continued at the end of the field. Second place went to Peter Dumbreck, the Scotsman just holding off Thomas Jaeger and Pedro Lamy. Alzen finished fifth ahead of Turner and Faessler, who made up ground from his 13th starting position.

Results Qualifying Heat:

1 Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 13:24.416
2 Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK + 03.555
3 Thomas Jäger Mercedes-Benz CLK + 12.964
4 Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK + 14.113
5 Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK + 14.339
6 Darren Turner Mercedes-Benz CLK + 16.916
7 Marcel Faessler Mercedes-Benz CLK + 17.110
8 Laurent Aiello Audi TT-R + 18.396
9 Bernd Maylaender Mercedes-Benz CLK + 20.958
10 Christian Abt Audi TT-R + 29.791
11 Alain Menu Opel Astra V8 + 32.971
12 Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 + 33.458
13 Christijan Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK + 34.576
14 Michael Bartels Opel Astra V8 + 36.245
15 Timo Scheider Opel Astra V8 + 36.585
16 Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK + 37.061
17 Mattias Ekstroem Audi TT-R + 40.299
18 Hubert Haupt Opel Astra V8 + 41.221
19 Yves Olivier Opel Astra V8 + 41.880
20 Martin Tomczyk Audi TT-R + 42.404
21 Peter Mamerow Opel Astra V8 + 43.511
22 Joachim Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 -

Main Race: (38 laps)

Bernd Schneider won the start from Dumbreck, while Alzen took Lamy and Jaeger by diving into the first corner. Huisman shortly left the track, damaging his front spoiler, but resumed at the tail end. Christijan Albers came into the pits right after his first lap, changed his tyres and joined the pack again. Tactics? Opel drivers Bartels (below) and Menu were also early callers in their pits, Menu's car was pushed away immediately, whereas Bartels took up the struggle a few laps later. Faessler gained a place when he overtook Lamy during lap 6, but Schneider led comfortably from Dumbreck, Alzen and Jaeger. Behind the Swiss there followed Turner, Aiello in the quickest Audi, then Abt and Maylaender.

Lap 7 saw another off-track exploration from Huisman who, after recovering to the track, came in for repair and tyre change. Three laps later the Dutchman was in the pits again and gave up for good. The series of regular pit stops is opened by Hubert Haupt and Laurent Aiello, who had his difficulties in starting his engine again, making him lose 20 seconds. Next in were Jaeger and Maylaender, Schneider stayed out, still leading by 5 seconds. Lap 21 saw the two British-driven Mercedes in the pits, Dumbreck left after 10.1 seconds, Turner after very quick 9.4. Now it was the leader's turn to come in; Bernd had trouble in joining the field after 11.4 seconds. This promoted Marcel Faessler to the top, the Swiss being the only driver of the leading group, who had not yet made his stop. And clever he was...Soon after we had the pace car out, after quite a heavy crash for Martin Tomczyk, the young Audi driver, who tested the tyre barriers in the Sachs-Kurve.

Faessler made good use of this and pitted while the pace car was out. This earned him two positions, he was now second behind Schneider, who made the best start again after the pace car let them go again. Dumbreck, Alzen, Jaeger and Albers (!) followed very close together, Albers gained ground due to his early stop. But the young Dutch driver got it all wrong shortly afterwards and was passed by six cars during his 35th lap.

Schneider had the race under control, he even allowed Faessler to close the gap. It was Bernd Schneider all the way this weekend, the 2000 champion winning both races and qualifying on pole position.

Opel and new signing Alain Menu (above) had a day to forget.

1. Schneider (Mercedes CLK) 38 laps in 41:15.568
2. Fässler (Mercedes CLK) + 0:00.816
3. Dumbreck (Mercedes CLK) + 0:04.757
4. Alzen (Mercedes CLK) + 0:05.443
5. Jäger (Mercedes CLK) + 0:14.553
6. Lamy (Mercedes CLK) + 0:17.234
7. Aiello (Audi TT-R) + 0:21.147
8. Turner (Mercedes CLK) + 0:22.252
9. Mayländer (Mercedes CLK) + 0:22.512
10. Abt (Audi TT-R) + 0:22.846
11. Scheider (Opel Astra V8 Coupe) + 0:23.219
12. Reuter (Opel Astra V8 Coupe) + 0:23.883
13. Albers (Mercedes CLK) + 0:25.627
14. Olivier (Opel Astra V8 Coupe) + 1 lap
15. Haupt (Opel Astra V8 Coupe) + 1 lap
16. Mamerow (Opel Astra V8 Coupe) + 1 lap
DNF Tomczyk (Audi TT-R)
DNF Huisman (Mercedes CLK)
DNF Bartels (Opel Astra V8 Coupe)
DNF Menu (Opel Astra V8 Coupe)
DNS Winkelhock (Opel Astra V8 Coupe)

Championship positions: 1. Schneider 23, Faessler 15, Dumbreck 14, Alzen 10; Jaeger 9, Lamy 6, Aiello 4, Turner 3, Maylaender 2, Abt 1.
(Points are awarded on 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 basis, with another 3-2-1 for the qualifying race)

Udo Klinkel.