Jul 26, 2008
Seven races, five pole positions: The qualifying performance of the new Audi A4 in the DTM remains impressive. At the Nürburgring, Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen secured the best spot on the grid. Mike Rockenfeller at the wheel of his A4 from last year in second place caused a huge surprise. A total of three Audi A4 DTM cars will be starting to the race from the top grid positions on Sunday at 5:35 p.m.
Shortly before the beginning of the qualifying it started to rain in the Eifel after a thunderstorm. During the second session the rain became so heavy that race control saw no alternative but to stop the qualifying because the track was flooded with water. With no quick improvement in weather conditions in sight, the qualifying was stopped completely and, according to the DTM regulations, the first session was used to determine the grid positions.
The quickest in these difficult conditions was eight-time Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen, despite the fact that he – like many other drivers – was struggling with heavily fogged windows. For the Dane, this is the first pole position of the year and the first since the finale of the 2007 season at Hockenheim.
A strong performance as well was shown by Mike Rockenfeller, who in last year’s A4 was leading for some of the time and bumped to second place by Tom Kristensen only at the last moment. This marks the first time in the 2008 DTM for a car from last year to start to a race from the front row on the grid.
Rockenfeller benefited from the premature stop of the second qualifying session in which he lost control on the flooded start-finish straight over his A4 and slipped off the track. Others were less fortunate: Last year’s winner Martin, despite setting the best time in the second session, will start from position three. Leader of the standings Timo Scheider had to settle for ninth place on the grid, thus starting four positions behind his immediate rival in the title fight, Mattias Ekström.
Scheider can take some consolation from the fact that the three best-placed Mercedes drivers in the championship will be starting to the race only from positions twelve, 13 and 16 – clearly further behind him.
For race day, thunderstorms are predicted again for the Eifel region so that the spectators – not least owing to the somewhat unusual starting order – can look forward to a particularly thrilling DTM race. Race start is at 5:35 p.m. (local time), ARD will broacast live from the Nürburgring on "das Erste” following Tour de France coverage. Background reports are available at Audi.tv on the internet.
The starting grid at the Nürburgring
1 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) 1m 38.346s
2 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) 1m 38.495s
3 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 1m 38.584s
4 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) 1m 38.649s
5 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 1m 39.197s
6 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) 1m 39.235s
7 Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) 1m 39.397s
8 Maro Engel (Mercedes) 1m 39.462s
9 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) 1m 39.520s
10 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM) 1m 39.551s
11 Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) 1m 39.644s
12 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) 1m 39.773s
13 Jamie Green (Mercedes) 1m 39.829s
14 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) 1m 39.961s
15 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) 1m 40.367s
16 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) 1m 40.517s.
17 Christjan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) 1m 41.385s
18 Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM) 1m 41.484s
19 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) 1m 42.087s
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