Oschersleben: Friday 2nd practice report

Opel the measure of all things on Friday in the MOTOPARK

Similar to the morning session, an Opel driver once again clocked the fastest time in the MOTOPARK near Magdeburg. The 1996 ITC champion Manuel Reuter notched up his fastest lap in 1:21.619 minutes for the 3.667 kilometres. Team mate Marcel Fässler (1:21.807 minutes) came second in the day's second 90-minute-long training session, two tenths behind. Mercedes-Benz driver Christijan Albers edged into third just a few minutes before the end.

Hot on the heels came Peter Dumbreck (Opel Vectra GTS V8) in fourth. Overall championship leader Mattias Ekström (Audi A4 DTM) placed fifth after 40 laps, just ahead of his team mate Martin Tomczyk. Timo Scheider came seventh to be the fourth Opel car to make the top 10. The winner of the last three races, Gary Paffett, finished the day's second training in 10th position after one and a half hours.

Manuel Reuter (Opel):

"I'm satisfied with today's result. That's why I'm also very confident going into tomorrow's qualifying. I can tell that the co-operation with my new race engineer, Martijn Meijs, is working very well. He implements my expectations perfectly."

Christijan Albers (Mercedes-Benz):

"I'm satisfied with the second training. The team worked very well and we're well on our way to getting a good chance tomorrow."

Mattias Ekström (Audi):

"I would have thought it would be easier for us here. We're within reach of the top and know what we have to work on by tomorrow. The fans wilI be very thrilled if we can repeat our battle from today in qualifying."

-dtm-