Très bon – Spengler on pole! Paul di Resta
impresses in third
Hockenheim. A dream start into the new DTM season. In bright
sunshine and in front of packed grandstands, the 20 drivers
staged a fascinating battle in the fight for the first pole
position of the year. With 1:34.369 minutes, Canadian Mercedes-Benz-driver
Bruno Spengler secured himself first place on the grid for
tomorrow’s race (ARD live from 13.45 h) after three
shoot-out sessions. German Martin Tomczyk (Audi A4 DTM) followed
in second place.0.077 seconds down. The champion of the 2006
Formula 3 Euro Series, Paul di Resta from Scotland, finished
in an impressive third place. In his first-ever DTM qualifying,
the 21-year old newcomer put his AMG Mercedes C-Class from
2005 on the second row of the grid. For the first time in
DTM history, a two-year old car made it into the final qualifying
heat.
“Especially in the first qualifying of the season,
being quickest is always something very special, as before
that, nobody really knows where we are”, the pole sitter
from the Hockenheimring said. For 23-year old Spengler, it
was the third pole position for the DTM, for his employer,
Mercedes-Benz, it was the 92nd. The 2004 DTM champion, Mattias
Ekström (Audi), will be starting from fourth place on
Sunday. Lining up behind him on the third grid row are his
fellow Audi drivers Tom Kristensen from Denmark and German
Timo Scheider. Crowd favourite Mika Häkkinen ended up
in seventh place with his AMG Mercedes C-Class.
Daniel La Rosa was unlucky in qualifying. After having completed
two sessions, the driver from Hanau had to park his car due
to problems with the steering system and thus missed out on
any better result. Susie Stoddart from Scotland however was
happy. Twelfth place was her best-ever qualifying result in
the DTM. For reigning DTM champion Bernd Schneider and fellow
Mercedes-Benz-driver Jamie Green, qualifying was over surprisingly
soon. Both failed to make it into the final session of the
shoot-out qualifying and will be starting from ninth and 13th
place respectively.
In the shoot-out qualifying of the DTM, the best 14 of 20
drivers go on to the next heat after the first session of
14 minutes. After another ten minutes, the field is being
reduced again to the eight fastest drivers. They are battling
for first to eighth place in the final session of nine minutes.
The first race of the 2007 DTM season will be starting on
Sunday at 14.00 h. Television partner ARD will be broadcasting
the 37 laps long season opener (169.238 kilometres) from 13.45
h onwards. Last year’s winner was the eventual DTM champion,
Bernd Schneider.
Bruno Spengler (1st starting place, DaimlerChrysler
Bank AMG-Mercedes): “I am totally happy with
pole position. Especially in the first qualifying of the season,
being quickest is always something very special, as before
that, nobody really knows where we are. It is great that it
was enough for pole. Now, I am im a good position to start
from for tomorrow. But in the DTM, it is always very close
and many things can happen.”
Martin Tomczyk (2nd starting place, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline): “That is how I had expected
it. I had planned to continue just where I ended last year,
and I did quite well. Today’s result shows how close
the battle for the title will be, and I want to be out in
front.”
Paul di Resta (3rd starting place, Jawa4u.de AMG-Mercedes):
“Being third in my first-ever DTM qualifying is just
fantastic! I could never even have dreamt about that. I have
been working hard during the winter and now got a great result
with an excellent car. However, tomorrow is another day and
it can be totally different.”
Mercedes-Benz-Motorsportchef Norbert Haug: „I
am happy to see Bruno Spengler on pole position at the debut
of the new C-Class. Paul di Resta in third with a two-year
old car is impressive. This was just great racing. The margins
in qualifyinf were minimal and Audi was very strong in the
second heat. That means that the result could just as well
have been the other way round. That everything has to be spot
on in qualifying, became obvious in Bernd Schneider’s
case. He is surely not somebody who needs any excuses. Track
conditions changed nearly every five minutes. I would also
like to emphasize the performance of Daniel La Rosa and Susie
Stoddart. Daniel had a problem with the power steering, otherwise
he could have been even further up front. Susie Stoddart’s
twelfth place in a 2005-spec car is great.”
Audi-Motorsportchef Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich:
“It was very busy out there today already. That shows
that the DTM remains very popular. I am happy that we are
among the front runners in this great championship. We have
seen a very exciting qualifying session, this format remains
great. For the cars from the different years, everything is
possible. But with this format, everything has to be spot
on. That is what makes the DTM so exciting. We have all our
2007-spec cars in good positions and therefore, we are in
a favourable position for tomorrow’s race. Even though
Mercedes-Benz has won here at Hockenheim for the past nine
years, it may very well be different tomorrow.”
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