July 18th, 2009
Audi driver Oliver Jarvis celebrates maiden DTM pole at Zandvoort
Zandvoort. In qualifying for the fourth DTM season round at Zandvoort in The Netherlands, British driver Oliver Jarvis caused a big surprise. With his 2008-spec Audi A4 DTM, the 25-year old set the fastest time. Thus, a year-old car will be on pole for the first time in history of the DTM. In the final heat of the four-way qualifying, Jarvis outpaced Gary Paffett (GB) and Bruno Spengler (CDN), both with current-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class cars, who ended up second and third respectively. ?I am very proud. We knew that we were quick and that it would be very close between the new cars and the year-old cars. Tomorrow?s race will be very difficult. But I am not worrying too much, because starting from pole, I have it all in my hands?, the Brit said, happy about his maiden pole position in the DTM. For Audi, it was the 48th DTM pole. Second-placed Paffett commented after qualifying: ?We expected the Audis to be quicker today. But we have a quick car and we have the right pace. Still, I hadn?t expected to end up second. Today, the car was very good and so it will be tomorrow.?
German Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller, also with a year-old car, showed a convincing performance, ending up fourth fastest. He was followed by Paul Di Resta (GB/Mercedes-Benz), Alexandre Pr?mat (F/Audi), Norisring-winner Jamie Green (GB/Mercedes-Benz) and German Martin Tomczyk with his Audi A4 DTM.
Three Audi drivers with new cars were rather disappointed. Last year?s race winner at Zandvoort, Mattias Ekstr?m (S), and his fellow Audi drivers Tom Kristensen (DK) and defending champion Timo Scheider, were already out after the second qualifying heat. They will be starting from ninth, tenth and eleventh place into the first race outside of Germany of this season. After scoring his best DTM result to date in the Norisring round, Ralf Schumacher had a setback. The team of the Mercedes-Benz driver opted for a wrong strategy and the ex-Formula 1 driver will be last on the grid.
The race on Sunday is scheduled for 41 laps, a total of 176.587 kilometres. The start is at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45).
