By Glenn Freeman Saturday, June 28th 2008, 12:39 GMT
Bruno Spengler, Mercedes, Norisring qualifyingTwo-time Norisring winner Bruno Spengler led a Mercedes 1-2-3 in qualifying for this year's DTM race at the German street track.
The Canadian, who has not won a race this season and currently sits sixth in the standings, held pole for most of the final qualifying segment. He briefly slipped behind Jamie Green with two minutes to go, but snatched the top spot back just 30 seconds later.
"I'm very happy, it's about time I had a pole position," said Spengler. "My lap was good, I made no mistakes, and now we just have to hope the race goes like this."
Green was happy to finish the session with a front row slot though, while Paul di Resta - winner last time out at Lausitz - jumped up to third in the closing stages.
"It's been a difficult weekend so far," said di Resta. "I've had some problems, but we've worked hard and I'm happy with third. It's a good place to start from, and I think we have a good car over a race distance."
Championship leader Timo Scheider was the best of the Audi drivers in fourth. The German had been quickest in the second segment of qualifying though, and if he could have repeated his best lap in the third session, it would have been enough for second.
"I'm a bit disappointed I couldn't do the Q2 time again, but that's life," said the German. "We have worked hard to be more competitive here than in recent years, and we have improved, so I'm sure we can race these guys."
Martin Tomczyk and Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen will share the third row in their Audis, while Bernd Schneider will line up seventh alongside reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom.
Gary Paffett, another two-time winner at this track, was the fastest of the 2007 cars in ninth, ahead of Alexandre Premat's Audi.
The one-year-old A4s have their work cut out this weekend, as they are the heaviest cars on the grid this weekend due to the way success ballast works in DTM.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 47.785
2. Jamie Green Mercedes 47.963 +0.178
3. Paul di Resta Mercedes 47.969 +0.184
4. Timo Scheider Audi 48.028 +0.243
5. Martin Tomczyk Audi 48.041 +0.256
6. Tom Kristensen Audi 48.136 +0.351
7. Bernd Schneider Mercedes 48.168 +0.383
8. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 48.187 +0.402
9. Gary Paffett Mercedes 48.295 +0.510
10. Alexandre Premat Audi 48.375 +0.590
11. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 48.417 +0.632
12. Maro Engel Mercedes 48.538 +0.753
13. Oliver Jarvis Audi 48.565 +0.780
14. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 48.663 +0.878
15. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 48.581 +0.796
16. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 48.627 +0.842
17. Christijan Albers Audi 48.658 +0.873
18. Markus Winkelhock Audi 48.662 +0.877
19. Katherine Legge Audi 48.829 +1.044
