Spengler starting from pole position at the EuroSpeedway
Klettwitz. Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz) will be starting
from pole position for the second time this season. In qualifying
at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, the Franco-Canadian secured himself
the best possible grid position for the race on Sunday with
a lap time of 1:18.408 minutes. With his AMG Mercedes C-Class,
he had already been fastest in qualifying for the season opener
at Hockenheim. Lining up alongside him on the front row of
the grid on Sunday will be his team-mate, two times’
Formula 1 world champion Mika Häkkinen. The Finn came
0.113 seconds short of Spengler’s time. The Mercedes-Benz
trio on top was completed by Paul di Resta with a 2005-spec
AMG Mercedes C-Class. Alexandre Prémat scored the best
qualifying result for Audi. With the 2006-spec Audi A4 DTM,
the Frenchman claimed sixth place behind Bernd Schneider and
Jamie Green, who were fourth and fifth respectively. The mechanics
of the Audi Team Phoenix showed a strong performance in repairing
the broken suspension of the left rear wheel on Prémat’s
car in the second qualifying heat within a few minutes. With
the current Audi A4 DTM cars, Mattias Ekström, Timo Scheider
and Martin Tomczyk are starting from ninth to eleventh place
for the third round of the season.
Qualifying in detail
Air temperature: 24.3 °C
Track temperature: 35.6 °C
13.28 hrs. Qualifying starts, Susie Stoddart is the first
driver to go out on the track
13.31 hrs. Mathias Lauda sets a lap time of 1:20.731, Lucas
Luhr outpaces the Austrian with 1:20.533, then Di Resta is
on top with 1:20.332
13.32 hrs. Mike Rockenfeller is fastest with 1:19.813
13.35 hrs. Paul di Resta is in the lead with 1:19.748, but
then Bruno Spengler counters and comes out on top with 1:19.509.
After that, Schneider is fastest with 1:19.351 and finally
Green is in the lead with 1:19.177
13.36 hrs. At the moment, Luhr, Häkkinen, Winkelhock,
Abt, Carroll and Ickx are out of the top 14. Bernd Schneider
sets the fastest time: 1:18.909
13.39 hrs. Currently, Schneider is leading from green, Di
Resta, Spengler, Paffett, Margaritis and Scheider
13.40 hrs. Häkkinen improves from 17th to third with
a lap time of 1:19.426, then Margaritis takes third with 1:19.408.
Di Resta counters with 1.19.330
13.41 hrs. Winkelhock briefly off the track. 14th placed Prémat
off the track, damaged left rear wheel suspension. Carroll
improves from 15th to eighth
13.44 hrs. Schneider is fastest from Green, La Rosa, Häkkinen,
Di Resta, Scheider, Paffett, Carroll, Margaritish, Spengler,
Lauda, Ekström, Tomczyk and Prémat.
13.45 hrs. Drivers not in the second session are Rockenfeller,
Luhr, Stoddart, Abt, Winkelhock and Ickx
13.49 hrs. The second session starts, Martin Tomczyk is the
first driver out
13.51 hrs. Alexandre Prémat back on the track after
a quick suspension repair
13.52 hrs. Jamie Green on top with 1:18.916
13.55 hrs. Green remains on top from Häkkinen and Di
Resta. Alexandre Prémat improves from ninth to third
13.56 hrs. Bruno Spengler into second with 1:18.967
13.57 hrs. Paul di Resta is now fastest with 1:18.530
13.59 hrs. Margaritis from 11th to eighth, pushes Ekström
out of the top eight
14.00 hrs. End of the session. Di Resta remains fastest from
Green, Spengler, Schneider, Häkkinen, Prémat,
La Rosa and Margaritis. Not making it into the final heat
are Ekström, Scheider, Tomczyk, Carroll, Paffett and
Lauda
14.06 hrs. Final heat starts. Alexandre Prémat is the
first driver out on the track
14.08 hrs. Bruno Spengler is fastest with 1:18.408
14.11 hrs. All cars on the track, Spengler fastest from Häkkinen,
Schneider, Di Resta, Prémat
14.12 hrs. Di Resta outpaces Bernd Schneider and takes third
place with 1:18.660
14.15 hrs. End of the session. Spengler remains on top from
Häkkinen, Di Resta, Schneider, Green, Prémat,
Margaritis and La Rosa
Mercedes-Benz dominates in the Lausitz: pole for Spengler
Klettwitz. Mercedes-Benz turned out to be the benchmark in
qualifying for the third DTM round of the season at the EuroSpeedway
Lausitz. Among the first ten cars, there are seven cars with
the three-pointed star on the bonnet. After three heats in
the shoot-out qualifying, Canadian Bruno Spengler secured
himself his second pole position of the season with the AMG
Mercedes C-Class. The 23-year old completed the 3.478 kilometres
long track in 1:18.408 minutes. “On the track, it is
quite narrow here. Therefore, being out in front at the start
is all the more important”, Spengler said. Crowd favourite
Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) from Finland was second,
0.113 seconds down. Third place was occupied by Scottish newcomer
Paul di Resta (Mercedes-Benz), who again surprised the opposition
with a two-year old car.
For the first time this season, the German DTM record champion
Bernd Schneider made it into the final DTM qualifying heat.
He will be starting from fourth position on the grid for the
race on Sunday at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45 h onwards).
After his major accident at the Hockenheimring, Alexandre
Prémat made his comeback in the Lausitz and caused
a stir right away. A broken suspension for the best-placed
Audi driver in the first qualifying heat brought about a huge
effort for his mechanics. The Team Phoenix crew worked quickly,
thus allowing the Frenchman to continue his session. He ended
up sixth behind Jamie Green with the AMG Mercedes C-Class.
The winner of the season opener, Mattias Ekström, will
be starting ninth with his Audi A4 DTM behind the two Mercedes-Benz
drivers, Alexandros Margaritis from Greece and Daniel La Rosa
from Germany. The winner of the previous race, Gary Paffett,
was having even more trouble. The British Mercedes-Benz driver
only qualified 13th. The two lady racers in the field, Susie
Stoddart (Mercedes-Benz) and Vanina Ickx (Audi) qualified
17th and 20th.
After two of ten season rounds, Mattias Ekström (Audi),
Paul di Resta (Mercedes-Benz) and Martin Tomczyk (Audi) are
jointly leading the points’ standings with twelve points
each. The race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz will cover a distance
of 153.032 kilometres.
Bruno Spengler (1st grid position, DaimlerChrysler
Bank AMG-Mercedes): “I am very happy with pole
position. Today, we have shown that the new car is working.
In fact, the performance was already there in the previous
races, but unfortunately, we ran out of luck. Here, being
in front is important as overtaking is not particularly easy.
For tomorrow, we are well prepared. When everything is going
perfectly, victory is within reach.”
Mika Häkkinen (2nd grid position, AMG-Mercedes):
“I am very happy being able to start from the front
row, but I am not happy with having to start from second place.
Tomorrow’s race surely will be an exciting affair for
the spectators. Here, we are very strong and we want to turn
today’s result into a good classification in the race
tomorrow. Our goal is ten points.“
Paul di Resta (3rd grid position, Jawa4u.de AMG Mercedes):
“An excellent qualifying result. I knew that I am quick
here, but I hadn’t expected to be that quick. Unfortunately,
I wasn’t able to repeat my super time from the second
qualifying heat in the third session. Still, I am very happy
with the result. My goal for the race definitely is scoring
points and when everything is running smoothly, maybe a podium
finish is possible again.”
Alexandre Prémat (6th grid position, Audi
Sport Team Phoenix): “That is a great qualifying
result. I didn’t expect making a comeback like this
one month after my major accident. The Mercedes-Benz are very
fast, but of course, I will give everything and try to get
a result as good as possible. When the start is good, scoring
points is possible.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“I didn’t expect things to go that well for us
in qualifying. But it is also clear that Audi was handicapped
because of the weight. Qualifying result is by no means the
race result. The result of our team was good, the system of
the DTM is working well. Paul di Resta also had to put in
extra weight twice and still is in a remarkable position with
that. There are now two new C-Classes in first and second
place and four new C-Classes in the top five. Maybe I will
have a picture taken of that.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “I
knew that it would be difficult for us with the additional
weight. But I had hoped for better positions of the 2005 and
2006 cars. Alexandre Prémat has done a good job. And
to defend our honour, one has to say that Mattias Ekström,
Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk are very closely together.
We have made the best out of the situation. Now we will try
to get the maximum possible number of points with a good strategy.
Audi and Mercedes-Benz have voted for this weight system and
now, we have to see that we get the best out of it.“
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