Tomczyk on pole in the Eifel ? Spengler closely behind
N?rburgring. 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 N?rburgring. 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 Ekstr?m. 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 N?rburgring in 2006, is third in the championship standings with 26 points behind Tomczyk (30 points) and Ekstr?m (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 H?kkinen (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 N?rburgring 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 N?rburgring 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 N?rburgring 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 Ekstr?m, 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 N?rburgring 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.?
