Audi on second row at Norisring
Source: Audi
Jun 28, 2008 - 2:20:16 PM
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Ingolstadt/Nürnberg – The fifth round of the 2008 DTM in Nuremberg promises
to become the most thrilling one of the year. The fiercely competitive
qualifying on Saturday confirmed that Audi with the new A4 has realistic chances
of putting an end to the string of Norisring wins Mercedes has clinched since
2003.
Timo Scheider as the best Audi driver will start from the
second row, Martin Tomczyk, Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekström from positions
five, six and eight. This means that on the grid all four new Audi A4 DTM cars
are "lying in wait" on rows two, three and four.
During the qualifying,
Timo Scheider even gave the many Audi fans in the stands at the Norisring reason
to dream of a pole position: In the second session, the leader of the standings
was the first Audi driver to break the 48-second sound barrier, clearly setting
a best time of 47.877 seconds.
In the third and decisive segment,
however, the Oschersleben winner did not quite equal his fastest lap. By merely
65 thousandths of a second, the German missed a position on the front row of the
grid, which he would have achieved with his time set in the second session. Only
marginally slower than Scheider were Martin Tomczyk, Tom Kristensen and Mattias
Ekström. All four drivers from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline were lying within
159 thousandths of a second.
The best driver of an A4 from last year was
the Frenchman Alexandre Prémat, who secured tenth place on the grid. His
team-mate from Audi Sport Team Phoenix, Oliver Jarvis, made it into the second
qualifying segment at his Norisring début as well. The young Brit will start to
the race from position 13.
For the the drivers of Audi Sport Team
Rosberg and the Audi Futurecom-TME customer team, the qualifying ended after the
first session. They will be starting from places 16 (Mike Rockenfeller), 17
(Christijan Albers), 18 (Markus Winkelhock) and 19 (Katherine Legge).
The DTM race at the Norisring will start at 2:03 p.m. local time on
Sunday. ARD will broadcast the race in Nuremberg live on "Das Erste" starting at
1:45 p.m.
Quotes after qualifying
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head
of Audi Motorsport): "We had expected a little more. I think, theoretically,
that would have been possible too but it’s incredibly difficult here to cope
with the grip conditions that keep changing from one lap to the next. Our rivals
were extremely strong again, as they always are here at the Norisring. The new
A4 is showing a good performance, but in the qualifying it wasn’t enough. Now we
need to concentrate on the race. Anything’s still possible."
Timo
Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM #10): "We managed developing the
car in the right direction, despite the fact that in the past Nuremberg wasn’t
necessarily our forte. That’s exactly why I’ve got a positive feeling. I’m happy
that we’ve become clearly more competitive vis-à-vis Mercedes than in recent
years. That’s why fourth place is not a disappointment. But it is disappointing
that I didn’t manage to set my time from the second qualifying in the third
session as well. I’m a little upset about that and it was also partially my
fault. We’re represented at the front of the grid with all the candidates for
the championship title. That’s why everything’s open for
Sunday."
Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #2): "That was
quite alright, I’m very satisfied. Everyone knows that the Norisring isn’t
necessarily my favorite track. In all three sessions I set a good time. Those
were my fastest times of the whole weekend. Fifth place at the Norisring linked
to my name gives me a positive feeling ..."
Tom Kristensen (Audi A4
DTM #9): "My hopes had been higher. We worked very hard at Audi on improving
our performance particularly at the Norisring. The car was very good, but not
consistent enough. That’s why I had a few small problems in the Schöller-S and
in the last turn. It was difficult to manage identical laps. That cost me a
tenth, and thus a few places."
Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM
#1): "I’ve been pleased with the new Audi A4 thoughout the weekend. But in
qualifying we didn’t have a one-hundred-percent perfect setup – and,
unfortunately, at exactly the time when everything should have been perfect.
That means tomorrow we’ll have to fight from eighth place."
Alexandre
Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM #14): "I’m absolutely satisfied,
I’d have never thought that it would be possible to clinch tenth place with the
heaviest car in the field. We were lacking only a tenth to Gary Paffett, whose
car is clearly lighter. I gave the max and am happy with the
qualifying."
Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM #15): "In
the first qualifying we were really good. I’m happy about that. In the second
qualifying we decided to start on old tyres in order to save one set for
Zandvoort. But afterwards, on the new tyres, we didn’t achieve the improvement
we’d been hoping for. The chicane didn’t offer that much grip, the car was
understeering."
Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM #18): "On
Friday I was satisfied but in free practice the car was almost undrivable on the
straight and only jumped at the front axle and bottomed out. So we changed the
whole setup. In qualifying it was actually very good, it’s just that at the
Norisring the times are so close together. You need to have confidence in the
car. I didn’t have confidence or else we’d have made it into the next qualifying
session."
Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM #21): "I think we’ve
achieved the maximum. More than that wasn’t possible. We can probably expect
quite a good race as well because our car is very consistent. That gives us
reason for hope."
Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM #19):
"That was a very mediocre qualifying after I’d been getting along very well with
my car in all the practice sessions. In free practice, the car’s balance was
still good. I was setting a superb time on used tyres, which I didn’t achieve
again in qualifying. Unfortunately, balance was completely different in
qualifying: very poor traction and lots of oversteer."
Katherine
Legge (Audi A4 DTM #20): "The qualifying was disappointing after we’d been
keeping up with the field pretty well on Friday. Actually, we had all been
looking forward to qualifying. However, both of the team’s cars were not running
perfectly. We’ve still got some work to do."
Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team
Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): "We can’t be completely satisfied.
Our expectations had been higher. We need to continue fighting. We know that the
race at the Norisring on Sunday will probably turn into a hot battle in high
temperatures again. We’re not sticking our head into the sand but will continue
fighting in order to be successful after all."
Ernst Moser (Team
Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): "We made it through the first session.
That was a must – we had planned on that. Making it into the last session was
impossible. That session was reserved for the new cars. We’re very satisfied
with places ten and 13. We said that, despite the weight disadvantage, we won’t
give up. We showed what is possible with strong will power and a good team
spirit. I’m proud of the boys and the drivers."
Arno Zensen (Team
Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): "After the previous sessions I’d been
expecting a bit more. That we didn’t get beyond the first qualifying with both
cars is definitely disappointing."
The starting grid in
Nuremberg
1 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) 47.785s
2 Jamie Green
(Mercedes) 47.963s
3 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) 47.969s
4 Timo Scheider
(GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) 48.028s
5 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4
DTM) 48.041s
6 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) 48.136s
7 Bernd Schneider
(Mercedes) 48.168s
8 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 48.187s
9
Gary Paffett (Mercedes) 48.295s
10 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix
Audi A4 DTM) 48.375s
11 Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) 48.417s
12 Maro Engel
(Mercedes) 48.538s
13 Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM) 48.565s
14 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) 48.663s
15 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) 48.581s
16 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) 48.627s
17 Christijan Albers
(Audi A4 DTM) 48.658s
18 Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) 48.662s
19 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) 48.829s
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