Hakkinen on Brands Hatch pole

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By Glenn Freeman Saturday, June 9th 2007, 12:53 GMT


Mika Hakkinen has taken his second pole position of the season for this weekend's DTM race at Brands Hatch.

The Finn narrowly beat teammate Bruno Spengler to pole in the final segment of qualifying, while Alexandre Premat shone in his one-year-old Audi as he qualified third on the grid.

Championship leader Paul di Resta had a disastrous session, as he was eliminated in the first segment of qualifying and will start his home race from 15th on the grid.

The Scottish driver tried several times to get through to the next session, and although he briefly made it back into the top 14 in the closing stages, he was eventually bumped out again.

Last year's winner Mattias Ekstrom will start from fourth on the grid, while Christian Abt backed up Premat's performance with fifth place in another 2006-specification Audi.

Reigning champion Bernd Schneider will start sixth, while Jamie Green could not repeat his front-row qualifying performance from last year, and the Mercedes driver will start seventh in his home race.

The British driver did set a time which would have been good enough for pole position during the middle of the final session, but his time was disallowed because the red flags had come out after Martin Tomczyk crashed at Turn 2.

Markus Winkelhock had a much stronger performance in qualifying, as he qualified in the top 10 for the first time since he returned to the series in place of Tom Kristensen.

The remaining British drivers also had a difficult session, as 2005 champion Gary Paffett was only 13th fastest, while Adam Carroll and Susie Stoddart were eliminated during the first segment.

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  Mika Hakkinen     Mercedes    42.660
 2.  Bruno Spengler    Mercedes    42.692  +   0.032
 3.  Alexandre Premat  Audi        42.784  +   0.124
 4.  Mattias Ekstrom   Audi        42.798  +   0.138
 5.  Christian Abt     Audi        42.952  +   0.292
 6.  Bernd Schneider   Mercedes    42.953  +   0.293
 7.  Jamie Green       Mercedes    43.153  +   0.493
 8.  Martin Tomczyk    Audi      2:56.774  +2:14.114
 9.  M.Winkelhock      Audi        42.795  +   0.135
10.  Mathias Lauda     Mercedes    42.848  +   0.188
11.  Lucas Luhr        Audi        42.869  +   0.209
12.  Timo Scheider     Audi        42.920  +   0.260
13.  Gary Paffett      Mercedes    43.015  +   0.355
14.  M.Rockenfeller    Audi        43.048  +   0.388
15.  Paul Di Resta     Mercedes    43.128  +   0.468
16.  Adam Carroll      Audi        43.188  +   0.528
17.  A.Margaritis      Mercedes    43.299  +   0.639
18.  Susie Stoddart    Mercedes    43.335  +   0.675
19.  Daniel La Rosa    Mercedes    43.416  +   0.756
20.  Vanina Ickx       Audi        43.618  +   0.958

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Hakkinen criticises Lausitz decision

By Glenn Freeman Saturday, June 9th 2007, 10:21 GMT


Mika Hakkinen believes that the governing body of German motorsport were wrong to award half points for the race at Lausitz last month.

The third round of the season was thrown into chaos during two safety car periods, and eventually the DMSB decided that only half points should be awarded because they were unsure that the results were entirely correct.

Hakkinen won the race, and the former Formula One world champion was disappointed to learn that he had lost five of his points through no fault of his own.

"I was at the Monaco Grand Prix and I was told about it," he said. "So obviously I asked a million times to find out what is going on.

"Why are they penalising me? If you have not done anything wrong in your driving, like speeding in the pit lane or pushing another car off, then you should not get penalty."

Hakkinen added that his reaction was not impulsive, as he has tried hard to work out why the officials decided to penalise the drivers.

"You try to look at every angle to see if it is right or not right," he added. "Obviously I am not happy about it.

However, the Finn believes that there is no point in continuing to complain about the decision, and he added that he is fully focused on this weekend's race at Brands Hatch.

"We are here at Brands Hatch, so there is no point going on about it," he said. "It's now history, but still the message is that this is not right."

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DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 36
Second pole in 2007 for Mika H?kkinen
Brands Hatch. In qualifying for the fourth round of the DTM at Brands Hatch, Mika H?kkinen claimed his second pole position of the season. Driving his AMG Mercedes C-Class, the two times? Formula 1 world champion set a fastest lap time of 42.660 seconds at the 1.929 kilometres long circuit. Bruno Spengler secured himself second place on the grid for tomorrow?s race. He was 0.032 seconds down on H?kkinen?s fastest time. Best-placed Audi driver was Alexandre Pr?mat with the 2006-spec A4 DTM in third place. His fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekstr?m is completing the second row of the grid.

Qualifying in detail
Air temperature: 23.4 ?C
Track temperature: 28.5 ?C

12.28 hrs.  Winkelhock first car on the track
12.30 hrs.  Winkelhock sets the first fastest time in 43.218 seconds
12.31 hrs.  Lucas Luhr takes the lead with 42.8600 seconds
12.32 hrs.  Spengler now first: 42.802 seconds
12.34 hrs.  Ekstr?m takes second place with 42.816 seconds
12.36 hrs.  At the moment, Carroll, Stoddart, Lauda, la Rosa, Pr?mat and Ickx don't make it into the next heat
12.38 hrs.  Lauda is now seventh with 43.005, pushes di Resta out of the top 14
12.39 hrs.  Alexandre Pr?mat takes fourth place with a lap time of 42.912 seconds
12.40 hrs.  Jamie Green claims the top position with 42.730 seconds
12.41 hrs.  Points leader di Resta has not made it into the top 14, just like Carroll, Margaritis, Stoddart, la Rosa and Ickx
12.42 hrs.  End of the session. Green is fastest from Spengler, Ekstr?m, Luhr, Pr?mat, Schneider, Tomczyk, Paffett, Lauda, Winkelhock, Rockenfeller, Scheider, H??kkinen and Abt
12.49 hrs.  Start of the next heat, Winkelhock is the first driver out on the track
12.50 hrs.  Premat is topping the time sheets with 42.760
12.52 hrs.  Tomczyk is now fastest with 42.720
12.54 hrs.  At the moment, the drivers not in the top eight are Luhr, Paffett, Rockenfeller, Winkelhock, Abt and Schneider. Eksr?m is now fastest with 42.597
12.56 hrs.  H?kkinen takes second place behind Ekstr?m with a lap time of 42.603
12.58 hrs.  End of the session. Not qualified for the final heat are Winkelhock, Lauda, Luhr, Scheider, Paffett and Rockenfeller.
12.59 hrs.  Ekstr?m remains fastest from H?kkinen, Schneider, Tomczyk, Green, Spengler, Abt and Pr?mat
13.06 hrs.  Start of the third and final qualifying heat. Bernd Schneider is first on the track
13.09 hrs.  Mika H?kkinen is fastest with 42.660. Martin Tomczyk straight on into the barrier at Druids, session stopped with red lag. 5.30 minutes remaining
13.12 hrs.  Session will be continued at 13.17
13.17 hrs.  Session restarts with 5.30 minutes remaining, Ekstr?m is the first driver out on the track
13.19 hrs.  Green still has no lap time, just like Tomczyk. Abt and Premat out on the track
13.21 hrs.  Spengler into second place with 42.692, H?kkinen remains fastest
13.23 hrs.  End of the session, H?kkinen remains fastest, taking his second pole of the season from Spengler, Pr?mat, Ekstr?m, Abt, Schneider and Green

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DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 37
Mika?s third stroke: Pole position at Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch. Things are going well for the Flying Finn: following pole position at Oschersleben and victory at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Mika H?kkinen also put his AMG Mercedes C-Class on pole at Brands Hatch. The Finn lapped the 1.929 kilometres short circuit, the shortest track on the DTM calendar, in 42.660 seconds. Qualifying was really difficult as all the drivers are so closely together here. Pole is pole and tomorrow, the others have the pressure, because they are behind me?, the 38-year old showed himself delighted with the third DTM pole of his career. H?kkinen?s team-mate Bruno Spengler secured himself second place. The Canadian was only 32 hundredths of a second down on the fastest time. Third fastest at the legendary circuit in the south-east of England was French Audi driver, Alexandre Pr?mat.

Mattias Ekstr?m (Audi) also secured himself a good position for the battle for the DTM championship title by qualifying fourth. Last year?s Brands Hatch winner is second in the points? standings, four points down on Scot, Paul di Resta. On Saturday, di Resta failed to make it into the second session of the shoot-out qualifying and will be starting 15th for the race on Sunday at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45 h).

Ekstr?m is being followed by the best-placed German, Christian Abt with the Audi A4 DTM. DTM record champion Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz) and his team-mate Jamie Green followed suit. Martin Tomczyk caused a brief interruption of the qualifying session. After locking up under braking in the third and final session, the Audi driver landed in the gravel trap, causing a five minutes? interruption. The third-placed in the points? standings will be starting from eighth place.

Other than Jamie Green, none of the five British drivers was able to use the home advantage in Kent county. The 2005 DTM champion, Gary Paffett, will be starting 13th, his fellow-countrymen di Resta and Adam Carroll from 15th and 16th place respectively. Susie Stoddart was 18th.

Mika H?kkinen (1st grid position, AMG Mercedes): ?Qualifying was really difficult as all the drivers are so closely together here. In the first qualifying heat, I was taking it a little bit too easy. That was a mistake, my times weren?t excellent. From the second heat onwards, I was totally focussed and my times improved. Eventually, I was on pole. Pole is pole and tomorrow, the others have the pressure, because they are behind me.?

Bruno Spengler (2nd grid position, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): ?Qualifying was very hard because it was all very close. I am really happy with the result, because I struggled here last year and things weren?t perfect yesterday either. We have been working very hard overnight and second place on the grid is the result. Tomorrow?s race will be very long and very hard, it will be important not to make any mistakes.?

Alexandre Pr?mat (3rd grid position, Audi Sport Team Phoenix): ?I am very happy with my qualifying as I managed to improve in every session. My fastest lap was good, but not good enough. A faster lap time would have been possible. Like at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, I am the best-placed Audi driver and I am very happy with that.?

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?I am very happy with the qualifying result. Congratulations to Mika H?kkinen for his second pole of the season and the fourth for the new C-Class. We have four cars in the top seven and everything is possible in the race on Sunday. Surely, it will be one of the toughest and most exciting races of the season. Being on pole doesn?t mean that one wins the race as well.?

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?First of all, I would like to than all those who have made it possible for us to be racing here at Brands Hatch again this year. The track is something special. We have seen an exciting qualifyin session. The lap times show that it can hardly be any closer. I want to congratulate Mercedes-Benz for pole position. We have two cars on the second row and we have shown already this year that these cars still can bring a good performance, even with handicap weight on board.?