DTM
Oschersleben. Audi driver Tom Kristensen drove to first place on the grid in qualifying for the fifth DTM season round at Oschersleben. In the fourth and final qualifying heat, the 42-year old Dane beat three fellow-Audi drivers. As a result, last year?s champion Timo Scheider will be also starting from the front row of the grid next to Kristensen. Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstr?m will be starting from third and fourth place respectively. Oliver Jarvis qualified fifth with a 2008-spec Audi A4 DTM, ahead of the best-placed Mercedes-Benz driver, Bruno Spengler.
An impressive performance for Audi in qualifying: already seven times in a row, Audi claimed pole position. ?The car is strong again, just like in the past. Technically, Oschersleben is a very demanding race track which suits our DTM-cars very well. On top of that, I have always been quick here. I hope that I can get a good start. Then, I can also win?, said Kristensen about his fastest time of 1:21.352 minutes.
With seven cars in the top eight, the brand from Ingolstadt has a fair chance of claiming its 50th race win in the DTM. Best-placed Mercedes-Benz driver was Spengler with his AMG Mercedes C-Class. At the 3.696 kilometres long track in the Magdeburg region, the Canadian will be starting from sixth place: ?We expected a difficult qualifying, but not this much. Driving with additional weight is always difficult, especially here at Oschersleben. In the race, I will give everything to bring home as many points as possible.?
With an air temperature of 30 degrees, points? leader Gary Paffett (GB/Mercedes-Benz) only scored a mediocre qualifying result. He has to make his way in the race from twelfth place on the grid. Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher wasn?t very successful in finding the right set-up for the narrow and twisty track. The Austrian-based driver will be starting from 14th place into the fifth round of the most popular international touring car series.
The race on Sunday will be run over 48 laps with a total distance of 177.408 kilometres. The start will be at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45 h).
