The end of a streak: di Resta claims pole for Mercedes-Benz
Klettwitz. After eight pole positions in a row for Audi, a DTM streak has come to an end. In qualifying for the fourth DTM round of the year, Mercedes-Benz driver, Paul di Resta, lapped the 3.478 kilometres long EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 1.17.628 minutes, the fastest lap time. He was delighted with his maiden pole position in the DTM: ?The best car I have ever driven.? His Canadian fellow Mercedes-Benz driver, Bruno Spengler, set the second fastest time of the day, 0.264 seconds down. Timo Scheider, who had started from pole position with his Audi A4 DTM in each of the three races held so far, ended up third. The race in the Lausitz with a distance of 52 laps, equalling 180.856 kilometres will start on Sunday at 14.00 h, the ARD will be broadcasting live from 13.45 h. Last year?s winner was Mercedes-Benz driver, Mika H?kkinen.
Spectators at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz again were treated to a highly exciting qualifying and a premiere in the current DTM season. For the first time, all the 2008-spec cars made it into the final qualifying heat and battled for pole position. The dominant driver of the current season so far, Timo Scheider, had an exciting battle with Paul di Resta and Bruno Spengler for the fastest lap time. However, there was no way to beat di Resta today. On his final lap, he was over half a second faster than last year?s fastest qualifying time. Behind the front grid row with the two AMG Mercedes C-Classes, reigning DTM champion, Mattias Ekstr?m (Audi) completed the second grid row in fourth place alongside Scheider. Mugello winner, Jamie Green (Mercedes-Benz) ended up fifth and will be starting into the race alongside Audi?s Martin Tomczyk. Audi driver, Tom Kristensen and Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz) followed in seventh and eighth place respectively.
British driver, Oliver Jarvis only just failed to make it into the third qualifying heat as the best-placed driver of a year-old car. He will be starting ninth. Ralf Schumacher confirmed his steadily improving shape and again made it into the second qualifying heat. Like in Mugello, he was the best-placed driver with a year-old Mercedes-Benz. For the fourth round of the season, the German will be starting from 13th place ahead of ex-Formula 1 driver, Christijan Albers (Audi) from the Netherlands.
In the DTM points? standings before the race on Sunday, Scheider is leading with 18 points from Green (17) and Ekstr?m (14).
Paul di Resta (1st grid position, AMG Mercedes): ?The best car that I have ever driven. Of course, pole in qualifying doesn?t mean victory in the race, but it is a very good position to work from.?
Bruno Spengler (2nd grid position, Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG Mercedes): ?That was a real straightforward qualifying. On my final lap, I ran slightly wide in the first corner and I lost two tenths of a second. As a result, I couldn?t make it to pole. The track suits us quite well and with a good start on Sunday, anything can happen.?
Timo Scheider (3rd grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?Third place in qualifying is a good result. And with two Audis on the second row, we have a good basis. Now, our entire focus is on Sunday and then, we will see what can be achieved.?
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?Paul di Resta has shown a great performance. First and second place on the grid is more than hat we had hoped for. We are even a little bit ahead of the goals we had set ourselves. However, that is no reason to be euphoric. In Mugello already, we were in contention and here we are eve a little bit more. I hope that we can repeat this qualifying result in the race tomorrow.?
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?Congratulations to Mercedes-Benz. Paul di Resta set an extraordinary lap time and qualifying remained exciting until the end. The mathematical chance for us to claim the ninth pole in a row surely wasn?t too big. Timo Scheider has got the best out of his car. From the second row, we will try everything to make it a good race and maybe to reach the result that we didn?t get in Mugello, where we failed to turn our position on the front row of the grid into a good race result.?
