Tomczyk on top in exctiting Barcelona qualifying
Highs and lows were closely together in qualifying for the
ninth DTM season round: with his Audi A4 DTM, Martin Tomczyk
will be starting from pole position on Sunday (ARD live from
13.45 h onwards) while points leader Mattias Ekström
is only tenth on the grid. Two times’ Formula 1 world
champion Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) will be lining
up alongside Tomczyk on the front row. With his AMG Mercedes
C-Class, Bruno Spengler kept his hopes for a good race result
and thus for the title alive by qualifying third.
Runner-up in the points’ standings, Martin Tomczyk
got himself an excellent position for the race. On a track
that dried out, the Bavarian driver set a lap time of 1.18.689
minutes, which made him fastest in the decisive qualifying
heat at the 2.977 kilometres long track. “This was a
perfect qualifying for me. Today, everything was spot-on here”,
the delighted 25-year old said. The Circuit de Catalunya seems
to suit Tomczyk as he already claimed pole position at the
track near Barcelona last year and then went on to take his
maiden DTM victory.
In the race, Tomczyk will probably not be able to expect
a lot of support from his fellow Audi drivers as there are
five Mercedes-Benz drivers lining up behind him on the grid.
Mika Häkkinen qualified second with his AMG Mercedes
C-Class, 0.179 seconds down. Like in the current points’
standings, Bruno Spengler occupied third place. He is followed
by defending champion Bernd Schneider, Jamie Green and Gary
Paffett, who is the best-placed driver with a year-old car
in sixth. Timo Scheider qualified seventh as the second best
Audi driver in qualifying for the penultimate round of the
season. Eighth place went to Alexandros Margaritis with his
2006-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class.
For the DTM points leader, Mattias Ekström, qualifying
didn’t go as planned. The Swede was only tenth with
his Audi A4 DTM behind his fellow-Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller
with his year-old car. Like in the last round at the Nürburgring,
Ekström failed to make it into the final qualifying heat.
There, Ekström still made it up to third in the race.
With twenty points still at stake, Ekström and Audi
can already secure themselves the DTM title on Sunday. The
points leader has a margin of four points over Martin Tomczyk
and ten points over Bruno Spengler.
The ARD is broadcasting live from Barcelona from 13.45 h
onwards. The ninth DTM round is covering a distance of 172.085
kilometres.
Martin Tomczyk (1st grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline): “This was a perfect qualifying
for me. Today, everything was spot-on here. Today, it was
mainly about getting the best possible lap with the right
tyre temperature at the right time. In the third session,
this was only possible in the beginning, as the track dried
out more and more towards the end and the time had come where
it would almost have been possible to switch to slicks.”
Mika Häkkinen (2nd grid position, AMG Mercedes):
“Today, it was a very special qualifying session, as
the conditions with the wet track were completely different
from what we had in free practice in the morning when it was
still dry. I was doing well, my car was great and that is
why I am in second place today.”
Bruno Spengler (3rd grid position, DaimlerChrysler
Bank AMG Mercedes): “It was a very difficult
qualifying session, because the track didn’t provide
much grip. My car was very good, I gave everything and thus
I am very happy with third place on the grid. Especially so
as I was only eighth after the second qualifying heat. We
are in a good position to start from for tomorrow.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich:
“Of course, I am happy that Martin Tomczyk succeeded
in claiming pole like last year. Apparently, the Circuit de
Catalunya really suits him and everything was okay. It is
not quite easy to understand why things didn’t go that
well for the others, but I am sure that they all did their
best. It seems that Mattias Ekström prefers tenth place
on the grid when battling for the title. I do not really understand
this strategy, but surely, he will be able to explain it to
me afterwards. Mercedes-Benz has shown a strong team performance.
Tomorrow, it will be difficult, but we will be giving everything
to get the maximum out of this qualifying result.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“I am very happy with this qualifying result. This is
a good position to start from for the race. We have shown
a great team performance and our goal certainly is to score
as many points as possible. But the most important thing is
that we have seen a fascinating qualifying session and we
surely will get to see an exciting race tomorrow. These are
the factors that are typical for the DTM. I really would like
it when we can keep the fight for the championship open until
the final race, maybe even until the final corner. We will
give everything to achieve that.”
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