The races

The telegram

Bernd Schneider was the man of the day at the Nurburgring, where race
nine and ten of this year's DTM season took place. The DTM leader gained
two victories and another 40 points which gave him a very satisfying
lead in the championship. But Schneider wasn't as dominating, as the
results might make believe. No, he had to fight hard to conquer those
40 points. Another happy man was Nicola Larini, who had to live through
bitter bitter days in the past and returned to success with one second
(race one) and one third place. The same results were scored by Zakspeed
youngster Sandy Grau, who gained third place in race one and place two
in the second one.

Race one: Bad luck for Dario Franchitti

Bernd Schneider took the lead right from the star, followed by team
mate Dario Franchitti and Zakspeed's Kurt Thiim. But after six laps
Dario attacked his "senior partner", took the lead and one lap later
Thiim lost his third position to Nicola Larini. Those four kept their
positions for many laps, while a lot of retirement was going on behind
them. One Mercedes, two Opels and three Alfas had already disappeared in
the pits when in lap 19 the leading quartett was destroyed by technical
problems: At first it was Kurt Thiim who was struck by bad luck again. A
fire in his engine bay destroyed all his hopes for a good placement and
poor Kurt seemed to be really frustrated. "What is going on, he asked.
"Why does this happen to me in nearly every race. Imagine, I've seen the
chequered flag only twice this year. I can't believe it." Then, in lap
twenty, it was Dario Franchitti, who had to give up. The young Scotsman,
who had increased his lead lap by lap and looked like a certain winner,
was stopped by a broken driveshaft. "What a mess", he murmured, but then
he found back his fighting spirit: "No problem, now I'll go out in race
two and I will attack as hard as possible. Even if this won't give me a
podium placement I'll have a lot of fun this way."

So Bernd Schneider reconquered first position and kept it until the race
was finished, scoring another 20 points. "I couldn't follow Dario, he
was simply too fast", Schneider said later. "But in lap 19 I recognized
him becoming slower and one lap later he retired. It was a great
performance by Dario, but nevertheless I'm happy to be the winner."

Place two went to Nicola Larini who showed a great performance but
wasn't quite happy nevertheless: "Okay, I'm satisfied to be back on the
podium, but couldn't it have been a little bit more?"

Sandy Grau, the third, in contrast to Larini was really pleased by his
result. "This was a fantastic race. But I burned my left foot at the
drive shaft tunnel. Nevermind, a good one has to stand this." Than he
smiled and prepared for race two, which should bring some more success
in the career of young Sandy Grau.


Race two: What a battle

Again Schneider took the lead, but Larini, second man in the grid, was
overtaken by Sandy Grau. And although those three kept positions until
they saw the chequered flag, the race was everything else than boring.
Caused by Sandy Grau, who gave it all and drove, as if he never had
heard the word team strategy. Lap after lap he put a lot of pressure on
Schneider and tried several times to overtake him. Twice he seemed to
have passed the leader, but the AMG star used all his routine to answer
Grau's attacks and succeeded in staying in front of him. Larini, the
third, watched this battle with a lot of satisfaction, as the leading
duo was slowed down by its battle and the Alfa driver could come nearer.
But every time, he thought he was in touch, the two Mercedes stopped
their fight for, did some very fast laps and put one or two seconds
between them and the Alfa. And some laps before the finish Grau stopped
attacking Schneider. "It wasn't worth while to risk everything," he said
later. "I just had to wait for a mistake of Bernd, but - it's a pity -
he didn't make one. Nevertheless I'm really satisfied by this weekend."

Just as Schneider was. "Still it's a long way to the title. You've
seen, what can happen. Imagine, it would have rained on like it did one
hour before the race was started. But this time luck was on my side,
particularly concerning Dario."

Even Nicola Larini seemed to be quite satisfied altogether: "I drove
all the two races at Top Qualifying speed. This was all I could do.
Remember, I'm driving a car, which hasn't seen further developments
since several weeks." Not to forget Kurt Thiim. The Dane, unhappiest man
of race one, took up race two from 18th position of the grid, showed a
marvellous performance and finished fourth.

Keke Rosberg: Success and retirement

For Keke Rosberg it was a day of split feelings. On the one hand he
finished 4th in race one and was best Opel driver of the day, on the
other hand he declared his retirement of racing. Rosberg: "It's never
the right day for a decision like this, but I had to do it some time."

Manuel Reuter instead was really angry: "I had a perfect car and was able
to do very fast laps. But I couldn't pass Uwe Alzen as his topspeed was
higher on the straight. And he wasn't fair enough to give room when I
already had passed him 75 percent."