Aug 30, 2008
At Brands Hatch Audi managed setting their sixth best qualifying time in eight races: Timo Scheider secured the pole position with a lead of nine hundreths of a second. This means that the Audi factory driver and leader of the standings starts from the top grid position for the fourth time this year. A total of four Audi A4 DTM cars will start to the race from the first four rows of the grid on Sunday.
Timo Scheider did not lose his cool even when the qualifying was interrupted early on: after a vehicle had to be pulled out of the gravel trap the first qualifying segment on the 1.929-kilometre circuit in Great Britain was stopped by a red flag. As a result, all 19 drivers started to the second segment, in which a number of excursions off the track at first would not allow anyone setting a fast lap again.
In the end, Timo Scheider – after being clocked with a lap time of 42.084 seconds – not only celebrated the sixth pole position in his entire DTM career, but a new record as well: the previous qualifying best mark at Brands Hatch, achieved by Tom Kristensen in 2006 (42.406 seconds), was beaten by Scheider by more than three tenths of a second.
The second-best Audi driver on the starting grid is Martin Tomczyk. Setting a time of 42.301 seconds, he managed the leap onto position four. Oliver Jarvis at his home round was only one tenth of a second slower. The Brit secured sixth place and, for the fifth time in his maiden season, was the best driver of a year-old car in qualifying. Audi was the front runner in this vehicle category for as much as the seventh time this year.
Mattias Ekström, currently in third place of the standings, had to settle for seventh position. Due to a gearbox defect the Swede was not able to use third gear.
For race day, the weather forecast has predicted heavily changing weather conditions, which should add further suspense to the race. Due to the 60-minute time difference the race will start at 13:02 local time. ARD will air live coverage starting at 13:50 (CEST). Background reports are available on the Internet at Audi.tv.
The starting grid at Brands Hatch
1 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) 42.084s
2 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) 42.174s
3 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) 42.256s
4 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 42.301s
5 Jamie Green (Mercedes) 42.342s
6 Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM) 42.414s
7 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 42.420s
8 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) 42.824s
9 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) 42.581s
10 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) 42.583s
11 Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) 42.615s
12 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) 42.631s
13 Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) 42.720s
14 Maro Engel (Mercedes) 42.803s
15 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank Audi A4 DTM) 42.911s
16 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) 43.641s
17 Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) 43.412s
18 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) 43.302s
19 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM)
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