30th April, 2011
Bruno Spengler claims first pole position of the season
DTM
Hockenheim. Canadian Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz) is on pole position for the DTM season opener at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg. With his AMG Mercedes C-Class, he claimed the best grid position with a lap time of 1:34.270 minutes in qualifying for the first race of the season. Lining up alongside him on the front row of the grid on Sunday will be Mattias Ekström (Audi). The Swede missed out on first place by 0.132 seconds. Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes-Benz) in third place and Timo Scheider (Audi) in fourth position will be on the second row of the grid. A full press release with quotes will follow shortly.
Qualifying at a glance
Temperature track: 24.6°C
Temperature air: 33.8 °C
13.40 hrs The first DTM qualifying of the 2011 season is go! Coulthard and Frey are the first drivers to hit the track.
13.43 hrs Coulthard tops the time sheets: 1:35.575
13.44 hrs Albuquerque is now fastest with 1:34.810, but he is toppled by Rockenfeller: 1:34.441.
13.45 hrs Spengler moves up into second place: 1:34.648.
13.46 hrs Tomczyk is now on top: 1:34.339.
13.47 hrs Paffett loses control at the Sachskurve and hits the tyre barriers. Red flag.
13.48 hrs Tomczyk remains first from Spengler, Rockenfeller, Albuquerque, Engel, Coulthard, Jarvis and Mortara, but the times are rather irrelevant as all the drivers move up into the second heat following the red flag.
13.51 hrs Q2 starts at 13.56 h with a time of 19.10 minutes.
13.56 hrs Green lights, Q2.
13.57 hrs Gary Paffett's car is being loaded onto the back of a recovery vehicle.
13:59 hrs Maro Engel is leading with 1:34.724.
14.00 hrs Rockenfeller is now on top with 1:34.293, but Molina soon takes over first place: 1:34.264.
14:03 hrs Schumacher is first: 1:34.220.
14:04 hrs Martin Tomczyk moves up into second: 1:34.260.
14:05 hrs Van der Zande moves up into eighth place: 1:34.475.
14:06 hrs Tomczyk is now first: 1:34.139.
14:07 hrs Timo Scheider takes over first place with 1:33.974.
14:08 hrs Vietoris is now eighth and is the best-placed rookie, followed by Mortara and Van der Zande.
14:09 hrs Engel is now eighth and topples Vietoris out of the top eight. Scheider remains on top from Tomczyk, Rockenfeller, Schumacher, Molina, Spengler, Ekström and Engel.
14:15 hrs End of the session. Scheider remains fastest from Tomczyk, Rockenfeller, Schumacher, Molina, Ekström, Spegler and Engel.
14:16 hrs The following drivers haven't made it into the third heat: Vietoris, Mortara, Van der Zande, Jarvis, Coulthard, Green, Albuquerque, Stoddart and Frey.
14:23 hrs Green lights, 11 minutes in the third heat.
14:28 hrs Engel is the first to go out.
14:31 hrs Engel: 1:34.437.
14:32 hrs Schumacher tops the time sheets with 1:33.981.
14:33 hrs Spengler is now on top: 1:33.735, Ekström is third with 1:34.192.
14:34 hrs End of the session. Spengler remains fastest from Schumacher, Scheider, Ekström. Rockenfeller, Tomczyk, Engel and Molina haven't made it into Q4.
14:42 hrs Green light for Q4, one lap showdown for Spengler, Schumacher, Scheider and Ekström.
14:45 hrs Ekström: 1:34.402.
14:47 hrs Scheider: 1:35.434.
14:50 hrs Schumacher: 1:34.577.
14:52 hrs Spengler: 1:34.270.
