Uwe Alzen drove the Warsteiner AMG Mercedes to a second-place finish in the 2001 DTM's seventh round on the Nurburgring's short track.
After 33 laps in high ambient temperatures Alzen crossed the finish line 2.870sec behind winner Laurent Aiello (Abt-Audi TT-R). Patrick Huisman in the Eschmann-Stahl AMG Mercedes came home third. A crowd of 69,000 attended the event and experienced a touring car racing festival.
Uwe Alzen started the qualifying race fourth on the grid and finished second behind Aiello. Bernd Schneider who had qualified third saw the chequered flag in fourth position behind Christian Abt (Abt-Audi TT-R).
At the start of the main event, Alzen took the lead after the first corner followed by Aiello and Schneider. On lap five, Schneider passed the Frenchman to improve to second and attacked Alzen.
Schneider came into the pits for his compulsory tyre change on lap eleven. Due to broken fixing screws on the brake disc mounting he was stationary for more than 30sec and dropped to 17th position. Alzen pitted one lap later (8.1sec) followed by Aiello on lap 13 (6.4sec). On lap 19, all drivers had finished their pit stops and Alzen had regained the lead. Aiello was second ahead of Eschmann-Stahl AMG Mercedes drivers Bernd Maylander and Patrick Huisman.
On lap 25, Aiello attacked Alzen in the Veedol-S and passed him just before the lap's last corner. Eight laps later they crossed the finish line in the same order. ''I'm really happy about my second place and I made a big step forward in the overall points standings,'' Alzen said. ''This was one of my toughest races and the fight with Laurent was really demanding, especially, because I had a problem with the brake balance. We touched several times but we had a fair race.''
