DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 45

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Ekstr?m gets himself birthday present: pole position in Mugello
Perhaps, Mattias Ekstr?m gave himself the most beautiful present to celebrate his 29th birthday: in qualifying for the sixth season round of the DTM in Mugello in Italy, the Swede claimed his first pole position of the season with his Audi A4 DTM, the ninth of his DTM career. In summery temperatures of over 30 degrees, he kept cool in the third qualifying heat, pipping his team-mate Martin Tomczyk to pole position in the final second. Tomczyk also had to let Tom Kristensen ahead of him, who outpaced the German on his final attempt as well. Timo Scheider in fourth and Alexandre Pr?mat with his year-old car in fifth place completed the dream result for Audi. In sixth place, Bruno Spengler was the fastest driver with an AMG Mercedes C-Class, seventh place was occupied by his team-mate, Jamie Green. For two times? Formula 1 world champion, Mika H?kkinen, qualifying was already over after one heat. The Finn didn?t do any better than 15th place. Bernd Schneider, points leader and reigning champion, couldn?t be happy with his result either as the German will only be starting from eleventh place for Sunday?s race. An extensive press release with quotes from the drivers and motorsport directors will follow shortly.

Qualifying in detail
Weather conditions: sunny
Air temperature: 34.2 ?C
Track temperature: 58.0 ?C

13.28 hrs.   Qualifying starts, Mattias Ekstr?m is the first driver out.
13.31 hrs.   Ekstr?m is the first driver to set a fastest lap time with 1:44.052 minutes, but then Tomczyk is faster, claiming first place with a lap time of 1:43.747
13.32 hrs.   Bernd Schneider is third behind the two Audis
13.33 hrs.   Timo Scheider and Alexandre Pr?matoutpace the reigning champion, claiming third and fourth place behind Tomczyk and Ekstr?m
13.35 hrs.   Kristensen is now second with 1:44.045
13.36 hrs.   At the moment, the following drivers would not make the cut: Luhr, Paffett, Lauda, Stoddart, Margaritis and Ickx, who are in 15th through 20th place
13.37 hrs.   Only five minutes remaining. Tomczyk stays in front from Kristensen, Ekstr?m, Scheider, Pr?mat, Schneider, Rockenfeller, Green, Luhr and Di Resta
13.39 hrs.   Lucas Luhr moves up from 15th to ninth, Mika H?kkinen would be out as he is 15th
13.42 hrs.   Time is over. Tomczyk remains on top. The following drivers haven't made it into the next heat: H?kkinen, Paffett, Lauda, Stoddart, Margaritis and Ickx
13.43 hrs.   Tomczyk is first from Kristensen, Ekstr?m, Scheider, Pr?mat, Schneider, Rockenfeller, Green, Luhr, Di Resta, Spengler, La Rosa, Winkelhock and Abt
13.44 hrs.   The second qualifying heat will start at 13.49 h
13.49 hrs.   Start of the second heat. Again, Mattias Ekstr?m is the first driver to go out on the track
13.52 hrs.   Ekstr?m sets a lap time of 1:43.906, but then Tomczyk claims first place with 1:43.857
13.56 hrs.   With three minutes remaining, Tomczyk is on top from Ekstr?m, Kristensen, Scheider, Pr?mat and Rockenfeller, while Spengler is best-placed Mercedes-Benz driver in seventh.
13.57 hrs.   Schneider improves from 13th to tenth
13.58 hrs.   Luhr hasn't done a timed lap so far. At the moment,the following drivers would not make the cut: Abt, Schneider, La Rosa, Di Resta and Winkelhock
14.00 hrs.   End of the session. Tomczyk remains on top from Ekstr?m, Kristensen, Scheider, Pr?mat, Spengler, Green and Rockenfeller
14.01 hrs.   The following drivers have not made it into the final session: Abt, La Rosa, Schneider, Di Resta and Winkelhock
14.06 hrs.   Start of the third and final session. The top eight placed drivers have nine minutes to battle for pole position. Again, Mattias Ekstr?m is the first driver on the track
14.09 hrs.   Fastest lap time for Mattias Ekstr?m: 1:44.192 minutes, but then Tomczyk is first with 1:44.080
14.10 hrs.   Timo Scheider outpaces Mattias Ekstr?m and claims second place with a lap time of 1:44.118
14.13 hrs.   Two minutes remaining. Tomczyk remains first from Scheider, Ekstr?m, Pr?mat, Kristensen, Spengler, Rockenfeller and Green
14.15 hrs.   Ekstr?m improves to 1:43.851 and claims first place.
14.16 hrs.   End of the session. Kristensen climbs up into secind with 1:44.065, Tomczyk is third from Scheider, Pr?mat, Spengler, Green and Rockenfeller. Ekstr?m claims his first pole of the season, doing so on his 29th birthday!

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DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 46
Audi fantastico ? five A4 DTM on top in qualifying
Mugello. The longest track on the calendar of the DTM, many high-speed corners and asphalt temperatures of up to 60 degrees ? the Mugello circuit provided hot action for the 20 DTM drivers during the first qualifying session in Tuscany. In air temperatures of over 30 degrees, Audi kept cool and claimed the first five grid positions for the race on Sunday at 17.40 h (ARD live from 17.40 h onwards). All in all, the company from Ingolstadt had seven cars among the first ten, the best qualifying result for Audi in history of the DTM. Mattias Ekstr?m gave himself his most beautiful birthday present: in qualifying for the sixth season round of the DTM, the Swede claimed pole position. ?A good car, a good team, good weather, a good spirit and birthday ? a perfect day?, a delighted Ekstr?m said. For the first time this season, he will be starting the race from pole position. It was his ninth career pole in the DTM. The 29-year old lapped the 5.245 kilometres ling circuit in 1:43.851 minutes.

Fellow Audi-driver, Tom Kristensen, will also be starting from the front row. The Dane came 0.214 seconds short. Martin Tomczyk was best-placed German in third place. The Audi top quintet was completed by German, Timo Scheider, and Frenchman, Alexandre Pr?mat, driving a year-old Audi A4 DTM.

For Mercedes-Benz, qualifying didn?t bring an optimal result. With Norisring winner Bruno Spengler and Jamie Green, only two drivers made it into the final qualifying heat. They occupied sixth and seventh position. For crowd favourite, Mika H?kkinen, shoot-out qualifying was already over after the first session, in which he occupied 15th place. Other prominent ?victims? were Gary Paffett, who was also out of contention after the first heat, and points? leader, Bernd Schneider. Ranked eleventh, he was sidelined as the eight fastest drivers battled it out for pole position in the third and final qualifying heat.

Because of the live coverage of the Tour de France, the sixth DTM round of the year will only start at 17.40 h. The drivers have to cover a total distance of 33 laps, equaling 173.085 kilometres.

Mattias Ekstr?m (1st grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): ?A good car, a good team, good weather, a good spirit and birthday ? a perfect day. When you have such a great car, driving such fast laps is really easy. I am proud of the strong showing of the entire Audi team and I am happy with my first pole of this season.?

Tom Kristensen (2nd grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?Because of the conditions, we knew what we could do. But I didn?t expect things to go that well. Today, our car was perfect for this magnificent track. When I was told on the radio that Mattias was on pole, I thought: you can?t take that away from a birthday kid (laughs).?

Martin Tomczyk (3rd grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): ?The overall result for Audi is excellent, although I am not happy with my own result. On the final lap of qualifying, I made a mistake and thus gave away a better grid position ? too bad.?

Bruno Spengler (6th grid position, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): ?Today, it could have been better, but it could have been worse just as well. The car has improved throughout the weekend. Tomorrow in the race, anything can happen. The tyres are the key to success. My goal is scoring as many points as possible.?

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?I can?t remember when we had five Audis starting into the race from the front of the grid. I am very happy with that. This morning, Mattias Ekstr?m told me that he wanted to give himself a birthday present. He succeeded in doing so and I am very happy with that. Now, we have to wait and see how we can turn this result into a good race result on Sunday.?

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?Congratulations to Audi for their first pole of this season. A good job. Although we have become faster, we just weren?t good enough in the end. The weight difference alone is no excuse. We could have been better, but failed to get the best out of the car. Of course, we had hoped that qualifying would be more balanced. At the Norisring three weeks ago, it was just the other way round. That is motorsport. Now, it is down to Audi, that can dominate proceedings in the race tomorrow. A podium finish will be difficult, but we will work on it. In the past, we have been able to surprise and maybe we can do so again tomorrow.?