4th September, 2010
Strong nerves - Paul Di Resta claims his second pole of the year
DTM
Fawkham. He made the most out of his home advantage, claiming pole at Brands Hatch with a great performance. With his AMG Mercedes C-Class, British driver Paul Di Resta set the fastest lap time at the shortest circuit on the DTM calendar and will be starting from pole position into Sunday’s seventh round of the DTM season. In the decisive qualifying heat, Di Resta completed the 1.929 kilomtres long lap in 41.278 seconds. His margin on the second-fastest driver, championship leader Bruno Spengler (CDN/Mercedes-Benz) was 0.052 seconds. “My family and friends are here, they are an extra motivation. In every session, we only had one outing and then made it to the front. Today, things were just going great and I hope that it will be better still tomorrow. I am competing for the championship”, said Di Resta, who is currently third in the points’ standings behind Spengler and Gary Paffett (GB/Mercedes-Benz). For Di Resta, it was the second pole position of this season after the EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
Reigning DTM champion Timo Scheider was the best-placed Audi driver of the day. The German’s performance is improving and ended up third in qualifying. “We are not giving up that easily. Even though overtaking will be difficult here tomorrow, I will try. Making it into the first two grid rows was our goal and that is where we are. It is a fact that our performance curve is showing a strong upward trend. We had a good qualifying again and I will try to make the best out of it on Sunday”, Scheider showed himself eager to attack.
Ralf Schumacher was also very happy. The Mercedes-Benz driver showed a great performance in qualifying and will be starting fourth on Sunday into the 189.042 kilometres long race. “That was all that I could achieve today. I am very happy with the result”, said the former F1 driver. His fellow Mercedes-Benz driver Gary Paffett will be starting right behind Schumacher. In the overall standings, the Briton is nine points down on Spengler.
Two times’ DTM champion Mattias Ekström from Sweden will be starting sixth with his Audi A4 DTM. His two fellow Audi drivers Oliver Jarvis (GB) and Spaniard Miguel Molina are following in seventh and eighth place respectively. With his 2008-spec car, Molina made it into the top eight for the fourth time this season already.
The seventh DTM round of the year will cover a distance of 98 laps and will start at 14.00 h (CET). ARD is broadcasting live from 13.45 h.
