Ekström gets himself birthday present: pole position
in Mugello
Perhaps, Mattias Ekström gave himself the most beautiful
present to celebrate his 29th birthday: in qualifying for
the sixth season round of the DTM in Mugello in Italy, the
Swede claimed his first pole position of the season with his
Audi A4 DTM, the ninth of his DTM career. In summery temperatures
of over 30 degrees, he kept cool in the third qualifying heat,
pipping his team-mate Martin Tomczyk to pole position in the
final second. Tomczyk also had to let Tom Kristensen ahead
of him, who outpaced the German on his final attempt as well.
Timo Scheider in fourth and Alexandre Prémat with his
year-old car in fifth place completed the dream result for
Audi. In sixth place, Bruno Spengler was the fastest driver
with an AMG Mercedes C-Class, seventh place was occupied by
his team-mate, Jamie Green. For two times’ Formula 1
world champion, Mika Häkkinen, qualifying was already
over after one heat. The Finn didn’t do any better than
15th place. Bernd Schneider, points leader and reigning champion,
couldn’t be happy with his result either as the German
will only be starting from eleventh place for Sunday’s
race. An extensive press release with quotes from the drivers
and motorsport directors will follow shortly.
Qualifying in detail
Weather conditions: sunny
Air temperature: 34.2 °C
Track temperature: 58.0 °C
13.28 hrs. Qualifying starts, Mattias Ekström is the
first driver out.
13.31 hrs. Ekström is the first driver to set a fastest
lap time with 1:44.052 minutes, but then Tomczyk is faster,
claiming first place with a lap time of 1:43.747
13.32 hrs. Bernd Schneider is third behind the two Audis
13.33 hrs. Timo Scheider and Alexandre Prématoutpace
the reigning champion, claiming third and fourth place behind
Tomczyk and Ekström
13.35 hrs. Kristensen is now second with 1:44.045
13.36 hrs. At the moment, the following drivers would not
make the cut: Luhr, Paffett, Lauda, Stoddart, Margaritis and
Ickx, who are in 15th through 20th place
13.37 hrs. Only five minutes remaining. Tomczyk stays in front
from Kristensen, Ekström, Scheider, Prémat, Schneider,
Rockenfeller, Green, Luhr and Di Resta
13.39 hrs. Lucas Luhr moves up from 15th to ninth, Mika Häkkinen
would be out as he is 15th
13.42 hrs. Time is over. Tomczyk remains on top. The following
drivers haven't made it into the next heat: Häkkinen,
Paffett, Lauda, Stoddart, Margaritis and Ickx
13.43 hrs. Tomczyk is first from Kristensen, Ekström,
Scheider, Prémat, Schneider, Rockenfeller, Green, Luhr,
Di Resta, Spengler, La Rosa, Winkelhock and Abt
13.44 hrs. The second qualifying heat will start at 13.49
h
13.49 hrs. Start of the second heat. Again, Mattias Ekström
is the first driver to go out on the track
13.52 hrs. Ekström sets a lap time of 1:43.906, but then
Tomczyk claims first place with 1:43.857
13.56 hrs. With three minutes remaining, Tomczyk is on top
from Ekström, Kristensen, Scheider, Prémat and
Rockenfeller, while Spengler is best-placed Mercedes-Benz
driver in seventh.
13.57 hrs. Schneider improves from 13th to tenth
13.58 hrs. Luhr hasn't done a timed lap so far. At the moment,the
following drivers would not make the cut: Abt, Schneider,
La Rosa, Di Resta and Winkelhock
14.00 hrs. End of the session. Tomczyk remains on top from
Ekström, Kristensen, Scheider, Prémat, Spengler,
Green and Rockenfeller
14.01 hrs. The following drivers have not made it into the
final session: Abt, La Rosa, Schneider, Di Resta and Winkelhock
14.06 hrs. Start of the third and final session. The top eight
placed drivers have nine minutes to battle for pole position.
Again, Mattias Ekström is the first driver on the track
14.09 hrs. Fastest lap time for Mattias Ekström: 1:44.192
minutes, but then Tomczyk is first with 1:44.080
14.10 hrs. Timo Scheider outpaces Mattias Ekström and
claims second place with a lap time of 1:44.118
14.13 hrs. Two minutes remaining. Tomczyk remains first from
Scheider, Ekström, Prémat, Kristensen, Spengler,
Rockenfeller and Green
14.15 hrs. Ekström improves to 1:43.851 and claims first
place.
14.16 hrs. End of the session. Kristensen climbs up into secind
with 1:44.065, Tomczyk is third from Scheider, Prémat,
Spengler, Green and Rockenfeller. Ekström claims his
first pole of the season, doing so on his 29th birthday!
Audi fantastico – five A4 DTM on top in qualifying
Mugello. The longest track on the calendar of the DTM, many
high-speed corners and asphalt temperatures of up to 60 degrees
– the Mugello circuit provided hot action for the 20
DTM drivers during the first qualifying session in Tuscany.
In air temperatures of over 30 degrees, Audi kept cool and
claimed the first five grid positions for the race on Sunday
at 17.40 h (ARD live from 17.40 h onwards). All in all, the
company from Ingolstadt had seven cars among the first ten,
the best qualifying result for Audi in history of the DTM.
Mattias Ekström gave himself his most beautiful birthday
present: in qualifying for the sixth season round of the DTM,
the Swede claimed pole position. “A good car, a good
team, good weather, a good spirit and birthday – a perfect
day”, a delighted Ekström said. For the first time
this season, he will be starting the race from pole position.
It was his ninth career pole in the DTM. The 29-year old lapped
the 5.245 kilometres ling circuit in 1:43.851 minutes.
Fellow Audi-driver, Tom Kristensen, will also be starting
from the front row. The Dane came 0.214 seconds short. Martin
Tomczyk was best-placed German in third place. The Audi top
quintet was completed by German, Timo Scheider, and Frenchman,
Alexandre Prémat, driving a year-old Audi A4 DTM.
For Mercedes-Benz, qualifying didn’t bring an optimal
result. With Norisring winner Bruno Spengler and Jamie Green,
only two drivers made it into the final qualifying heat. They
occupied sixth and seventh position. For crowd favourite,
Mika Häkkinen, shoot-out qualifying was already over
after the first session, in which he occupied 15th place.
Other prominent “victims” were Gary Paffett, who
was also out of contention after the first heat, and points’
leader, Bernd Schneider. Ranked eleventh, he was sidelined
as the eight fastest drivers battled it out for pole position
in the third and final qualifying heat.
Because of the live coverage of the Tour de France, the sixth
DTM round of the year will only start at 17.40 h. The drivers
have to cover a total distance of 33 laps, equaling 173.085
kilometres.
Mattias Ekström (1st grid position, Audi Sport
Team Abt Sportsline): “A good car, a good team,
good weather, a good spirit and birthday – a perfect
day. When you have such a great car, driving such fast laps
is really easy. I am proud of the strong showing of the entire
Audi team and I am happy with my first pole of this season.”
Tom Kristensen (2nd grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt): “Because of the conditions, we knew what
we could do. But I didn’t expect things to go that well.
Today, our car was perfect for this magnificent track. When
I was told on the radio that Mattias was on pole, I thought:
you can’t take that away from a birthday kid (laughs).”
Martin Tomczyk (3rd grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline): “The overall result for Audi
is excellent, although I am not happy with my own result.
On the final lap of qualifying, I made a mistake and thus
gave away a better grid position – too bad.”
Bruno Spengler (6th grid position, DaimlerChrysler
Bank AMG Mercedes): “Today, it could have been
better, but it could have been worse just as well. The car
has improved throughout the weekend. Tomorrow in the race,
anything can happen. The tyres are the key to success. My
goal is scoring as many points as possible.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “I
can’t remember when we had five Audis starting into
the race from the front of the grid. I am very happy with
that. This morning, Mattias Ekström told me that he wanted
to give himself a birthday present. He succeeded in doing
so and I am very happy with that. Now, we have to wait and
see how we can turn this result into a good race result on
Sunday.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“Congratulations to Audi for their first pole of this
season. A good job. Although we have become faster, we just
weren’t good enough in the end. The weight difference
alone is no excuse. We could have been better, but failed
to get the best out of the car. Of course, we had hoped that
qualifying would be more balanced. At the Norisring three
weeks ago, it was just the other way round. That is motorsport.
Now, it is down to Audi, that can dominate proceedings in
the race tomorrow. A podium finish will be difficult, but
we will work on it. In the past, we have been able to surprise
and maybe we can do so again tomorrow.”
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