DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 40

[fasteddy]

Third pole of the season for Bruno Spengler at Norisring
Nuremberg. Canadian Bruno Spengler, will be starting from pole position for tomorrow?s fifth DTM round at the Norisring in Nuremberg. With his AMG Mercedes C-Class, the 23-year old claimed the best grid position for the race with a lap time of 55.963 seconds in qualifying. For Bruno Spengler, it was the third pole position of the season and the seventh of his DTM career. Lining up alongside him on the front row of the grid will be two times? Formula 1 world champion Mika H?kkinen. The strong performance of Mercedes-Benz was completed by DTM record champion Bernd Schneider in third place and Gary Paffett in fourth. Timo Scheider is the best-placed driver with a 2007-spec Audi A4 DTM in fifth place from Jamie Green (Mercedes-Benz), Mattias Ekstr?m and Tom Kristensen (both Audi) in sixth to eighth place.

The Qualifying at a glance
Weather condition: rainy, wet track
Air temperature: 16,8 ?C
Track temperature: 18,7 ?C

13.28 hrs   Qualifying starts, Mattias Ekstr?m is the first driver out for the 14 minutes' session. The track is wet, it is still raining.
13.30 hrs   Timo Scheider is fastest with 58.985 seconds ahead of Ekstr?m and Tomczyk.
13.31 hrs   A lot of changes on the leaderboard: Tomczyk is fastest, then Schneider, then Abt, then Schneider again with 56.940
13.34 hrs   Christian Abt is on top with 56.706, which makes him 0.607 seconds faster than Schneider.
13.35 hrs   Currently, the two lady racers, Susie Stoddart and Vanina Ickx are 13th and 14th and thus both provisionally qualified for the second heat. Vanina Ickx spins at the Grundig-hairpin, but continues.
13.38 hrs   Alexandre Pr?mat spins at the Sch?ller-S right-hander, hits the tyre barriers rearward, causing some damage to the rear of his car.
13.39 hrs   Abt is still fastest from Schneider, Paffett, Spengler, Tomczyk, Green, H?kkinen and Ekstr?m. Rain is getting heavier, so there are no meaningful times at the moment.
13.40 hrs   Lucas Luhr spins at the Sch?ller-S right-hander, continues.
13.42 hrs   End of the sssion. Pr?mat, Carroll, Margaritis, Rockenfeller, Luhr and Lauda aren't qualified for the second heat.
13.43 hrs   Abt remains fastest from Schneider, Paffett, Spengler, Tomczyk, Green, H?kkinen, Ekstr?m, La Rosa, Scheider, Di Resta, Kristensen, Stoddart and Ickx.
13.49 hrs   The second heat starts,Bernd Schneider is the first driver out while the Audi team is still working on Tom Kristensen's car.
13.51 hrs   Timo Scheider is fastest with 58.066.
13.52 hrs   Kristensen is finally out of the pit box. H?kkinen claims first place with 57.235.
13.54 hrs   Bernd Schneider is now fastest with 57.177 seconds from Jamie Green with 57.330.
13.56 hrs   H?kkinen counters, claiming back first place with 57.039, then Kristensen is on top with 56.989, before Paffett improves to first with 56.618.
13.59 hrs   End of the session. Di Resta, Abt, Tomczyk, Stoddart, la Rosa and Ickx aren't qualified for the final heat.
14.00 hrs   In the final minute, Spengler is fastest with 56.602 from Paffett, Kristensen, H?kkinen, Scheider, Schneider, Green and Ekstr?m.
14.01 hrs   The final heat is starting at 14.06.
14.07 hrs   The session has started, but no driver is out yet, waiting for the track to dry.
14.08 hrs   Mattias Ekstr?m is the first driver out.
14.11 hrs   Spengler is fastest with 56.385 from Ekstr?m and Paffett.
14.12 hrs   Bernd Schneider improves to third, but then, Green takes third from Paffett.
14.13 hrs   H?kkinen is fastest with 56.199 from Spengler, Schneider and Green.
14.15 hrs   Bernd Schneider takes second between H?kkinen and Spengler, then Spengler is fastest with 55.963.
14.16 hrs   Bruno Spengler claims pole position from H?kkinen, Schneider, Paffett, Scheider, Green, Ekstr?m and Kristensen.

[fasteddy]

DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 41
Spengler leaves the opposition out in the rain: pole at Norisring
Nuremberg. Canadian Mercedes-Benz-driver, Bruno Spengler, had the upper hand over his rivals in qualifying for the fifth round of the season in the DTM and will be starting from pole position tomorrow at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45). Torrential rain at the start of qualifying made the session at the only street circuit on the DTM calendar to a slippery affair. Spengler turned out to be fully concentrated in all sessions of the shoot-out qualifying at the 2.3 kilometres short track and thus claimed the best grid position for the race for the third time already this season. ?This was the most difficult pole position of the year, because conditions were so extraordinary?, said the winner of four races last year, who still hasn?t opened his winning account this season.

Spengler?s team-mate Mika H?kkinen from Finland was second, missing out on a third pole position of the year by 0.236 seconds. The winner from Brands Hatch, Bernd Schneider, and Gary Paffett completed the lock-out of the first two grid rows for Mercedes-Benz by qualifying third and fourth respectively. Paffett already won twice at the Norisring in 2004 and 2005. Austrian-based German driver, Timo Scheider, qualified fifth with his Audi A4 DTM, making him the best-placed Audi driver of the day. Last year?s pole sitter from Nuremberg, Jamie Green from Great Britain, only had to make do with sixth place. The winner of the season opener from Hockenheim didn?t get an excellent qualifying result either. Swede Mattias Ekstr?m drove his Audi A4 DTM to seventh position on the grid. The driver in eighth place caused huge delight among teams and spectators. Tom Kristensen (Audi) from Denmark is making his comeback in the DTM following his severe accident at Hockenheim.

The particular weather and track conditions caused joy and grief for some drivers. The leader in the points? standings, Martin Tomczyk (Audi) failed to make it into the final session of the top eight and was eleventh. On the other hand, his fellow Audi-driver Vanina Ickx and Susie Stoddart with her AMG Mercedes C-Class were happy with the wet conditions. Watched by star guest Roger Moore, Stoddart qualified twelfth and Belgian lady racer Ickx was 14th.

In the points? standings, Martin Tomczyk is first with 20 points, only just ahead of his closest rival Mattias Ekstr?m at 18. DTM record champion Bernd Schneider is third with 17.5 points.

Bruno Spengler (1st grid position, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): ?I am really happy, because today, qualifying was really difficult. Initially, I didn?t have a clue, as I never drove at Norisring in the rain before. Throughout the three sessions, the car got betterand better. The team has done a great job and therefore I am really happy with this pole position.?

Mika H?kkinen (2nd grid position, AMG Mercedes): ?Surely, qualifying was very exciting for drivers and teams. Condtions were changing all the tim and we had to react immediately. Finding the right line was a real challenge. Because you really have to brake from high speeds here at the Norisring, finding the right braking point is particularly difficult in these conditions, but I am happy with the result.?

Bernd Schneider (3rd grid position, Original Teile AMG Mercedes): ?I think, qualifying in the dry wouldn?t have been bad either. There was massive aquaplaning on the main straight. My car was really sideways twice there and I was lucky that everything went well. At the Norisring, it is quite possible to win the race from my grid position.?

Timo Scheider (5th grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?Finding the right set-up for qualifying was a little bit like a lottery. After I messed up in qualifying at Brands Hatch, I can live with fifth place very well. My team and I have seen what can be achieved and I am in a good position for the race tomorrow. When the race is run in the dry, we are already well sorted.?

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?This was a very exciting qualifying session with times changing from one lap to another. For our team, the result is great and I really have to praise them, because I didn?t see any mistakes. In such conditions, you have to go a certain way concerning set-up and then stay on the track. Locking out the first two grid rows certainly is an advantage, but that doesn?t guarantee victory in the race. Tomorrow, strategy will be playing a very important role, as it is important not to be stuck in traffic. Now, we are happy with the result and we will see what happens tomorrow.?

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?Here, we were beaten by Mercedes-Benz and not by the weather, no doubt about it. Weather was the same for both of us. Our cars often had good sector times in one sector, and then times that wouldn?t have been enough to qualify fourth. Now, we will not give up, but sit down and talk and try to make the best out of it for tomorrow. When the weather remains as changeable as this, we must try to find a good compromise in set-up. When we are running consistently in the race tomorrow with a good strategy and without making slight errors, the spectators will get to see an exciting race.?