2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race

2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race
The Nürburgring Sprint Strecke hosted its maiden DTM race.
Race Information
Date	26 August 2001
No.	30
Event	Großer Preis der Tourenwagen 2001
Location	Nürburgring Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Format	100 km / 40 min (Feature Race)
Lap length	3.038 km (1.887 mi)
Distance	33 laps / 100.254 km (62.295 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	{{{{{natp}}}}} Unknown
Team	{{{{{natpt}}}}} Unknown
Time	Unknown
Fastest Lap
Driver	Bernd Schneider
Team	D2 AMG-Mercedes
Time	1:05.947 on lap 14
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Laurent Aïello	Uwe Alzen	Patrick Huisman
Winner Team	Team Abt Sportsline
Time	37:29.059
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2001 Nürburgring II Qualifying Race		2001 Spielberg Qualifying Race

The 2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race, otherwise formally known as the Großer Preis der Tourenwagen 2001 Feature Race, was the fourteenth race of the 2001 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on 26 August 2001. The race would see Laurent Aïello sweep to his second Feature race victory of the season, having had to regain the lead after a slow start.

Indeed, having claimed a dominant victory in the Qualifikationslauf it was the #19 Abt-Audi of Aïello that would start from pole, although the Frenchman did not take advantage. Instead, it was second place started Uwe Alzen who stormed into the lead, while a similar run saw Bernd Schneider draft ahead of Aïello's teammate Christian Abt.

Otherwise it was a clean start to the race, with the only incident of note being Hubert Haupt getting elbowed onto the grass at turn five. With that Aïello set about harrying Alzen for the lead, with Schneider stalking them from third ahead of Abt as the order stabilised.

After a few false starts Schneider finally managed to get ahead of Aïello to grab second, with their fight having allowed Abt and Mattias Ekström to catch onto their tail. Alzen, meanwhile, used the fight to briefly escape, only to be steadily reeled in by Schneider over the following laps.

Abt was the first of the leaders to stop on lap nine, moments before Haupt went flying across the gravel at the chicane and damaged his car. Fortunately Haupt would get into the pits without disrupting the rest of the race, with Ekström stopping a lap later but stalled in the pits.

Schneider was next in but damage to the studs holding the left-rear wheel caused the German to lose almost thirty seconds, dumping him back to seventeenth. Alzen was in on the following tour just as Schneider rejoined, with Patrick Huisman and a flying Thomas Jäger also diving in. Aïello, meanwhile, would lead for two laps before making his stop, and rejoined right behind Alzen's #5 Mercedes.

The rest of the field made their stops before the end of nineteen, with Alzen filtering back to the front ahead of Aïello, while Bernd Mayländer and Huisman fought for third. Aïello then began to attack Alzen for the lead and duly scythed past the #5 Mercedes at the Veedol Schikane with eight laps to go to secure the lead.

With that the fight for victory was over, with Aïello escaping from Alzen to claim his fourth win of the campaign ahead of the German racer. Behind Huisman claimed third ahead of Jäger, who had climbed from 22nd on the grid to fourth, while Schneider thrashed his car back up to sixth behind Manuel Reuter. Mayländer, Darren Turner, Christijan Albers and David Saelens claimed the remaining points, albeit after Abt had been disqualified for failing to serve his pitstop within the allocated pit-window.

Background

Bernd Schneider had failed to extend his Championship lead after the opening bout at the Nürburgring, and hence had remained on 108 points for the season. Teammate Peter Dumbreck was next up in second, but was still 43 behind, while Marcel Fässler and Uwe Alzen had retained third and fourth. Laurent Aïello had been the main benefactor after his victory, having inched closer to Alzen, while Christian Abt had moved ahead Joachim Winkelhock to claim thirteenth.

In the Teams' Championship there had been very little change out front, as D2 AMG-Mercedes had seen their lead marginally reduced. Indeed, their advantage had been deducted by two points to 70 by sister squad Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes, while behind, a further 47 points away, Eschmann AMG-Mercedes had retained third, just ahead of Abt Sportsline Junior in fourth. The senior Abt-Audi squad had instead been the Qualifikationlauf's major winners, having moved to within two of their rookie counterparts.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race is displayed below:

2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Livery
1	Bernd Schneider	D2 AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:BSC 01 Livery.png
2	Peter Dumbreck	D2 AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:DUM 01 Livery.png
3	Joachim Winkelhock	Opel Team Holzer I	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2001	File:WIN 01 Livery.png
4	Timo Scheider	Opel Team Holzer I	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2001	File:TSC 01 Livery.png
5	Uwe Alzen	Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:ALZ 01 Livery.png
6	Marcel Fässler	Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:FAE 01 Livery.png
7	Manuel Reuter	Opel Team Phoenix	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2001	File:REU 01 Livery.png
8	Yves Olivier	Opel Team Phoenix	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2000	File:OLI 01 Livery.png
9	Bernd Mayländer	Eschmann AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:MAY 01 Livery.png
10	Patrick Huisman	Eschmann AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2001	File:HUI 01 Livery.png
11	Michael Bartels	Opel Team Holzer II	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2001	File:BAR 01 Livery.png
14	Thomas Jäger	Original Teile AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2000	File:JAE 01 Livery.png
15	Christijan Albers	Original Teile AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2000	File:ALB 01 Livery.png
16	Alain Menu	OPC Euroteam	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2000	File:MEN 01 Livery.png
17	Hubert Haupt	OPC Euroteam	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2000	File:HAU 01 Livery.png
18	Christian Abt	Team Abt Sportsline	Abt-Audi	TT-R 2001	File:ABT 01 Livery.png
19	Laurent Aïello	Team Abt Sportsline	Abt-Audi	TT-R 2001	File:AIE 01 Livery.png
20	Peter Mamerow	Mamerow Racing Team	Opel	Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2000	File:MAM 01 Livery.png
22	Mattias Ekström	Team Abt Sportsline Junior	Abt-Audi	TT-R 2001	File:EKS 01 Livery.png
23	Martin Tomczyk	Team Abt Sportsline Junior	Abt-Audi	TT-R 2001	File:TOM 01 Livery.png
24	David Saelens	Service 24h AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2000	File:SAE 01 Livery.png
42	Darren Turner	Service 24h AMG-Mercedes	AMG-Mercedes	CLK-DTM 2000	File:TUR 01 Livery.png
Source:

Grid

The grid for the 2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race was based on the results from the 2001 Nürburgring II Qualifying Race:

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Laurent Aïello	2
	______________	Uwe Alzen
Row 2	3	______________
	Christian Abt	4
	______________	Bernd Schneider
Row 3	5	______________
	Bernd Mayländer	6
	______________	Mattias Ekström
Row 4	7	______________
	Marcel Fässler	8
	______________	Christijan Albers
Row 5	9	______________
	Martin Tomczyk	10
	______________	Patrick Huisman
Row 6	11	______________
	Timo Scheider	12
	______________	Manuel Reuter
Row 7	13	______________
	David Saelens	14
	______________	Michael Bartels
Row 8	15	______________
	Yves Olivier	16
	______________	Joachim Winkelhock
Row 9	17	______________
	Hubert Haupt	18
	______________	Peter Mamerow
Row 10	19	______________
	Darren Turner	20
	______________	Peter Dumbreck
Row 11	21	______________
	Alain Menu	22
	______________	Thomas Jäger

Race

Results

The final classification of the 2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race is displayed below:

2001 Nürburgring II Feature Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	19	Laurent Aïello	Abt Sportsline	33	37:29.059		20
2nd	5	Uwe Alzen	Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes	33	+2.870s		15
3rd	10	Patrick Huisman	Eschmann AMG-Mercedes	33	+3.850s		12
4th	14	Thomas Jäger	Original Teile AMG-Mercedes	33	+10.366s		10
5th	7	Manuel Reuter	OPC Team Phoenix	33	+18.014s		8
6th	1	Bernd Schneider	D2 AMG-Mercedes	33	+20.432s	1:05.947	6
7th	9	Bernd Mayländer	Eschmann AMG-Mercedes	33	+25.901s		4
8th	42	Darren Turner	Service 24h AMG-Mercedes	33	+26.213s		3
9th	15	Christijan Albers	Original Teile AMG-Mercedes	33	+26.501s		2
10th	24	David Saelens	Service 24h AMG-Mercedes	33	+29.867s		1
11th	11	Michael Bartels	OPC Team Holzer II	33	+32.682s
12th	16	Alain Menu	OPC Euroteam	33	+37.871s
13th	3	Joachim Winkelhock	OPC Team Holzer I	33	+45.935s
14th	22	Mattias Ekström	Abt Sportsline Junior	32	+1 Lap
15th	20	Peter Mamerow	Opel Team Mamerow	32	+1 Lap
16th	17	Hubert Haupt	OPC Euroteam	32	+1 Lap
DSQ*	18	Christian Abt	Abt Sportsline	33	Disqualified
Ret	6	Marcel Fässler	Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes	22	Retired
Ret	8	Yves Olivier	OPC Euroteam	22	Retired
Ret	4	Timo Scheider	OPC Team Holzer I	10	Retired
Ret	23	Martin Tomczyk	Abt Sportsline Junior	5	Puncture
DNS	2	Peter Dumbreck	D2 AMG-Mercedes	—
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
• * Abt was disqualified from the race for failing to complete his pitstop during the allocated pit-window.

Milestones

• Laurent Aïello secured his fourth DTM victory.
• Fourth win for ABT Sportsline as an entrant.
  • Fourth victory for Audi as a manufacturer.

Standings

Bernd Schneider had moved ominously close to retaining the DTM crown as the seventh race weekend came to a close, having moved onto 114 points for the season. That meant that he held a 49 point lead over second placed teammate Peter Dumbreck, and could win the title with victory at the Spielberg round. Behind, Uwe Alzen was 50 points back in third, four ahead of Laurent Aïello, while Marcel Fässler still had a mathematical chance of taking the title in fifth.

In the Teams' Championship it was D2 AMG-Mercedes who remained in command of the title hunt, although their advantage had been reduced across the weekend. Indeed, sister squad Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes had closed the gap down to 61 points with 120 left to fight for, while Eschmann AMG-Mercedes were still mathematical contenders in third, albeit some 108 points back. Abt Sportsline, meanwhile, had overtaken their sister team Abt Sportsline Junior to claim fourth after a strong weekend.

2001 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Bernd Schneider 114 ◄0 2nd Peter Dumbreck 65 ◄0 3rd Uwe Alzen 64 ▲1 4th Laurent Aïello 60 ▲1 5th Marcel Fässler 54 ▼2 6th Patrick Huisman 42 ▲1 7th Thomas Jäger 42 ▼1 8th Mattias Ekström 30 ◄0 9th Marcel Tiemann 26 ◄0 10th Martin Tomczyk 23 ◄0 11th Christijan Albers 17 ◄0 12th Manuel Reuter 15 ▲4 13th Pedro Lamy 12 ▼1 14th Christian Abt 11 ▼1 15th Joachim Winkelhock 10 ▼1 16th Darren Turner 8 ▲1 17th Michael Bartels 7 ▼2 18th Bernd Mayländer 6 ◄0 19th David Saelens 2 ▲1 20th Timo Scheider 1 ▼1

2001 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st D2 AMG-Mercedes 179 ◄0 2nd Warsteiner AMG-Mercedes 118 ◄0 3rd Eschmann AMG-Mercedes 74 ◄0 4th Abt Sportsline 71 ▲1 5th Original Teile AMG-Mercedes 59 ▲1 6th Abt Sportsline Junior 53 ▼1 7th Service 24h AMG-Mercedes 22 ◄0 8th OPC Team Phoenix 15 ▲1 9th OPC Team Holzer I 11 ▼1 10th OPC Team Holzer II 7 ▼1

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

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