Tomczyk on pole in the Eifel – Spengler closely behind
The battle for the title in the DTM is getting tighter.
The runner-up in the points’ standings, Martin Tomczyk
from Rosenheim, secured himself the best possible starting
position for the eighth DTM round of the season at the Nürburgring.
With his Audi A4 DTM, he lapped the 3.629 kilometres long
circuit in the Eifel in 1.23.197 minutes and will be starting
from pole position for the race on Sunday (ARD live from 14.30
h onwards). “I am overjoyed with this pole position.
Yesterday and this morning, things weren’t going very
well, but it went all the better in qualifying”, said
a visibly happy Tomczyk, who also benefited from problems
for points leader Mattias Ekström. The Swede failed to
make it into the final heat of the shoot-out qualifying and
will be starting from tenth place. Fellow Audi-driver Timo
Scheider completed the clean sweep for Germany on the first
row of the grid. The 25-year old was only 0.013 seconds slower
than Tomczyk. Danish driver Tom Kristensen completed the Audi
trio in front with the third fastest time. For Tomczyk, it
was his first pole position of the year and the fifth of his
DTM career.
Bruno Spengler, the best Mercedes-Benz driver on Saturday,
occupies a promising fourth place on the grid. The Canadian,
who secured himself pole position and victory in the race
at the Nürburgring in 2006, is third in the championship
standings with 26 points behind Tomczyk (30 points) and Ekström
(38 points). DTM record champion Bernd Schneider (D), who
is only half a point behind Spengler in the standings, will
be starting from fifth place with his AMG-Mercedes C-Class
ahead of fellow Mercedes-driver Jamie Green (GB). With his
two-year old Mercedes, Scotsman Paul di Resta again made it
into the final qualifying heat. The 21-year old will be starting
alongside Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) from the fourth
row on the grid after qualifying seventh.
Because of the coverage from the athletics world championships
by the ARD, the Nürburgring race will be started one
hour later than usual, at 15.00 h. The ARD will be covering
the eighth DTM race with a distance of 156.047 kilometres
from 14.30 till 16.30 h.
Martin Tomczyk (1st grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline): “I am overjoyed with this
position. Yesterday and this morning, things weren’t
going very well, but it went all the better in qualifying.
The position for the race is very good. It is our goal to
pull clear from the Mercedes-Benz cars as quickly as possible.”
Timo Scheider (2nd grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt): “I am very happy with today’s result.
When you only have three cars in the final qualifying heat
and then have them on the first three grid positions, it is
a sensational result. I am really happy with our strong team
performance.”
Tom Kristensen (3rd grid position, Audi Sport Team
Abt): “First, second and third place for Audi
is great. Today, we were very strong, but unfortunately, I
wasn’t very consistent. The track surface at the Nürburgring
is difficult because it is quite slippery. Unfortunately,
I didn’t get it right in all three sectors in one lap.
Still, I am happy with the result.”
Bruno Spengler (4th grid position, DaimlerChrysler
Bank AMG Mercedes): “I slightly locked up under
braking for the first corner with my final set of tyres. That
is why I couldn’t do any better. But still, fourth place
is not a bad position to start from. With a good start tomorrow
and no accident on the first corner, anything can happen.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “I
am happy with the performance that we have shown in this qualifying.
For the third time in a row, we are up front. It was very
exciting, as it was topsy-turvy all the time. Generally, we
have seen here at the Nürburgring how close things are
in the DTM. Martin Tomczyk, Timo Scheider and Tom Kristensen
got it spot on and I am happy with that. For Mattias Ekström,
it didn’t work out 100 percent and thus he didn’t
make it into the top eight. But that was qualifying, the race
is tomorrow. I am also impressed by the fact that there were
already so many fans here at the Nürburgring on Saturday
to watch this exciting qualifying.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“We have shown a very strong team performance with the
AMG Mercedes C-Classes locking out fourth to ninth place.
In total, we have nine cars in the top 14. Our cars still
have ten kilograms more on board. However, we are totally
competitive and the gap isn’t big. For tomorrow, I am
hoping for a good start and that we can add some more excitement
to the championship. But first of all, we want to show good
and fair motorsport.”
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