Nurburgring ARCOR 06/05/2001   Full Report Aiello For Abt-Audi   An action-packed second round of the DTM resulted in a fine and well-deserved first ever win for the Abt-Audis on Sunday, when Laurent Aiello took his TT-R to victory in the "Eifelrennen" at the Nürburgring. Nobody really expected the new yellow coupes to be able to win in only their second appearance, but the Abt-Audi team proved them all wrong by taking an all important victory on the Eifel track against a very strong Mercedes opposition. Opel again was nowhere and just managed to pick up the last single point - their first in this year's championship. First tests on Friday resulted in Mercedes heading the list with Thomas Jäger and Uwe Alzen just in front of the already very quick Laurent Aiello. The Audi drivers showed a very strong team performance with all four cars in the top ten and continued this way for the whole weekend. Young Martin Tomczyk surprised everybody by putting his Audi in sixth place even beating his boss Christian Abt by three tenths. But there was more to come.. Qualifying: Peter Dumbreck opened the qualifying session with team mate Bernd Schneider following on the trot, both drivers aiming at setting an early time. Weather conditions were dry, but cold and windy. They marked times of 1:38.878 (Dumbreck) and 1:38.811 (Schneider) as an orientation for their opponents. Opel drivers again were nowhere near the top, although Yves Olivier did a surprising 1'38.703 which put him into second for some minutes. Then Timo Scheider produced a 1'38.472 as the best Opel time so far. As soon as Mercedes and Audi got down to serious work, Opel's efforts seemed to be wasted, as within minutes all four Audi drivers were recorded in the top six. But the "Squadra Abt" had not yet played all their aces, but first it was Mercedes turn to set the records straight with Jaeger and Faessler both on pole for a short time. But half an hour into the session we had the sensational order Aiello (Audi, left), Tomczyk (Audi), Jaeger (Mercedes) and Schneider (Mercedes). Most of us could not believe our eyes glancing at the time screens, Aiello on pole was a surprise, but Tomczyk in only his second ever DTM qualifying in second was a real sensation! Then reigning champion Bernd Schneider bounced back: 1'37.255 - good enough for pole? No! Young Tomczyk responded with a 1'37.104 and Aiello even managed a 1'37.025! And that was it. Two Audis on the front row - who would have put his money on that? Team boss Hans-Jürgen Abt: "Hockenheim already showed that we have a solid base to operate from. Our drivers feel that there is a lot of potential in the cars and take great a motivation from it. If you consider our beginnings last year, this result is really sensational". Laurent Aiello said "we have four quick drivers in our team, but qualifying is one thing, the race tomorrow another. We have to transfer our performance to race conditions, but to have Martin beside me on the front row should be of advantage in the sprint race." "I still cannot belive it! I got used to the DTM car quite quickly, it feels very well and I can identify myself with it" reported Martin Tomczyk in his new role at being presented in a press conference. He has to get used to that as well... Opel's Volker Stryczek was not happy at all with the still bad performance of his cars: "We still have to clarify where the problems are, but we are sure that it is a whole string of things, not only a single part. We will have to look into the cars very thoroughly and try to find at least one second." Yves Olivier, surprisingly the quickest Opel driver in Reuter's car from last year: "I will at least try to pick up some championship points tomorrow, but there is still a lot to do. Even my "old" car is not yet at its best." Bernd Schneider, who finished the qualifying in third place, was slowed by yellow flags in one of his fast laps and later by some heaps of gravel on the track "which made me slide two times and lost me some tenths of a second, I suppose". Result Qualifying: 1 Laurent Aiello Audi TT-R 1'37.025 2 Martin Tomczyk Audi TT-R 1'37.194 3 Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.255 4 Marcel Faessler Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.271 5 Thomas Jaeger Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.275 6 Christian Abt Audi TT-R 1'37.410 7 Christian Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.615 8 Mattias Ekstroem Audi TT-R 1'37.716 9 Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.787 10 Yves Olivier Opel Astra V8 1'37.793 11 Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'37.298 12 Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'38.016 13 Timo Scheider Opel Astra V8 1'38.026 14 Bernd Maylaender Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'38.209 15 Joachim Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 1'38.225 16 Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'38.276 17 Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 1'38.279 18 Darren Turner Mercedes-Benz CLK 1'38.367 19 Alain Menu Opel Astra V8 1'38.550 20 Michael Bartels Opel Astra V8 1'38.867 21 Hubert Haupt Opel Astra V8 1'39.992 22 Peter Mamerow Opel Astra V8 1'40.376 Sunday morning's warm-up again was dominated by the yellow Audis. This time Christian Abt set the pace with a fantastic 1'36.943, a time even faster than Aiello's pole. The Frenchman followed in second, third was Thomas Jaeger in his Mercedes. Again Yves Olivier topped the Opel ranks in 10th position. Qualifying Race: It was cold and windy again, but this time there was chance of rain also. And this is what happened, it started to drizzle a little bit just before the start of the sprint race. The surface of the track became slippery, which was first to be experienced by Alain Menu who spun during the formation lap! The start was won by the three Audis heading almost beside each other for the "Castrol-S ", the first right hander, always being a difficult place to get through without trouble, but the more difficult in the slippery conditions. Promptly it happened: Winkelhock (left) spun into the barrier, Schneider also, some others as well, difficult to spot in the dust. Both drivers returned to the track, Schneider starting his hunt at the tail end to make up for the lost ground. In the meantime, Manuel Reuter had a big shunt on the backside of the track, the Opel spinning and crashing backwards into the armco. The car was a write-off, Reuter out for the weekend, but unharmed. Still the Audi threesome headed the field. Aiello leading from Tomczyk and Ekstoem, who made a great start. Only Audi in trouble was Christian Abt's car. The Bavarian called at the pits after two laps. Now Dumbreck and Lamy put pressure on young Ekstroem, who had to give in soon, leaving Dumbreck in third from Lamy. Lap 4 saw a collision between Opel drivers Timo Scheider and Michael Bartels, with both continuing a few places down. Meanwhile Bernd Schneider worked up to eighth. Marcel Faessler, who lost the bonnet of his Mercedes in the first lap tussle, had worked up as well and took Dumbreck for third on lap 5, the Mercedes drivers fighting very hard for every inch, much to the dislike of Mercedes chief Norbert Haug: "During the sprint race some of our 'gentlemen' overdid it a bit, I had a few words with them afterwards". Still 12 cars were circulating in an action-packed express train, with positions changing constantly. During the last lap Faessler lost two more places against Schneider and Alzen, after Dumbreck and Jaeger had retaken the Swiss the lap before. The two Audis in front were never seriously under pressure and went on to win the sprint by 10 and 7 seconds respectively from the highest placed Mercedes. Result Qualifying Race: 1 Laurent Aiello Audi TT-R 7 laps 12'47.545 2 Martin Tomczyk Audi TT-R 7 laps 12'50'896 3 Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 12'58.183 4 Thomas Jaeger Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 12'58.418 5 Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 12'58.624 6 Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 12'59.183 7 Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 12'59.604 8 Marcel Faessler Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 13'00.184 9 Darren Turner Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 13'00.796 10 Mattias Ekstroem Audi TT-R 7 laps 13'01.019 11 Bernd Maylaender Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 13'01.341 12 Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 13'01.620 13 Christijan Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK 7 laps 13'02.149 14 Yves Olivier Opel Astra V8 7 laps 13'12.416 15 Hubert Haupt Opel Astra V8 7 laps 13'13.045 16 Timo Scheider Opel Astra V8 7 laps 13'13.701 17 Alain Menu Opel Astra V8 7 laps 13'33.259 18 Peter Mamerow Opel Astra V8 7 laps 13'43.501 19 Joachim Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 7 laps 14'20.616 20 Michael Bartels Opel Astra V8 6 laps 13'11.622 Christian Abt Audi TT-R DNF Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 DNF Main Race: Manuel Reuter was a non-starter due to his accident in the sprint race. Again Aiello won the start, whereas Tomczyk (left) had some trouble defending his second place against Jaeger, resulting in a short 'off', which promoted Jaeger and Dumbreck to second. Young Martin fought back promptly, colliding with Dumbreck, who lost three places. The order after one lap: Aiello, Jaeger, Tomczyk, Schneider, Lamy. First cars into the pits were Huisman and Albers, whereas on the track Tomczyk attacked Jaeger, followed closely by Bernd Schneider. Then a small gap to Faessler, Lamy, Alzen, Dumbreck and Turner. Opels again were also rans with Olivier in 12th place just in front of Alain Menu. When Laurent Aiello came in for his pit stop, Thomas Jaeger took the lead from Tomczyk. It took the Abt mechanics 9.4 seconds to get Aiello back on the track, but they were beaten by Schneiders crew: a sensational 7.2 seconds and the Mercedes was on its way again. When Jaeger pitted on lap 9 we had Martin Tomczyk in the lead for the first time. But the young Bavarian had still to come in, Schneider now put pressure on Aiello, who should retain his lead after all pit stops were finished. Last driver out without a stop was Michael Bartels in his yellow-green Oase-Opel. And he made something out of this situation what you can only call "The Michael Bartels Show": For five glorious laps an Opel was leading and Bartels defended his position with all he could think of. He did not give in! Aiello tried everything to get by, but Bartels shut the door regularly. This resulted in Aiello being held up and Schneider could close the gap on the Frenchman. Lap 19 and the Opel intermezzo is finished, Bartels came in to change his tyres, which took him 19.3 seconds. Now Aiello was only 0.4 seconds in front of Schneider, closely followed by Jaeger, Tomczyk, Faessler and Alzen. 2 laps later a "three-pack" consisting of Tomczyk, Alzen and Jaeger headed for the Castrol-S side by side, none of them gave in and Alzen left the track under braking, whereas Tomczyk lost a part of his rear spoiler. Both continued to set after Jaeger. Alzen's Mercedes suffered more damage from this excursion, resulting in a wheel falling off on the last lap. Poor Alzen was out, whereas at the front Aiello held off the attention of Schneider to win by 1.5 seconds. Jaeger came third and Tomczyk did a great job to finish fourth in only his second DTM race. Two very exciting races marked a milestone in the Abt-Audi DTM history, the Bavarians winning for the first time and they did it in a really convincing way. Hans-Jürgen Abt: "This is the most important day of the history of our racing team. Last year's hard work was finally rewarded and today we just want to enjoy this victory and have a great party." Norbert Haug spoke of a "milestone in the DTM history and a success for the new race format. I believe that Opel will be back soon and that all three makes should be able to win races." Stryczek commented on Bartel's performance very positively. "We left him out there intentionally to enjoy leading the field; we could only win by this, because if there would have been a stop to the race within these five laps we would have been the winners." Bernd Schneider complained a little bit about the very hard driving "among team mates", but in the end he was satisfied with the race and the result, which still sees him leading the championship. 1 Laurent Aiello Audi TT-R 22 laps 36'52.833 2 Bernd Schneider Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 36'54'350 3 Thomas Jaeger Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 36'57.574 4 Martin Tomczyk Audi TT-R 22 laps 36'58.081 5 Marcel Faessler Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 36'58.463 6 Pedro Lamy Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 37'08.098 7 Patrick Huisman Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 37'11.187 8 Peter Dumbreck Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 37'11.545 9 Mattias Ekstroem Audi TT-R 22 laps 37'13.294 10 Timo Scheider Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'14.953 11 Yves Olivier Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'15.627 12 Christijan Albers Mercedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 37'15.627 13 Joachim Winkelhock Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'33.660 14 Michael Bartels Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'37.152 15 Hubert Haupt Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'47.533 16 Darren Turner Marcedes-Benz CLK 22 laps 37'48.808 17 Alain Menu Opel Astra V8 22 laps 37'55.922 18 Peter Mamerow Opel Astra V8 22 laps 38'33.288 19 Uwe Alzen Mercedes-Benz CLK 21 laps 35'19.728 20 Bernd Maylaender Mercedes-Benz CLK 21 laps 37'32.242 DNF Christian Abt Audi TT-R 2 laps DNS Manuel Reuter Opel Astra V8 Championship positions: 1. Schneider 38 2. Aiello 27 3. Faessler 23 4. Jaeger 21 5. Dumbreck 18 6. Lamy 12 Tomczyk 12 8. Alzen 10 9. Huisman 4 10. Turner 3 11. Maylaender 2 Ekstroem 2 12. Abt 1 Scheider 1 Udo Klinkel. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport