A mix of thunderstorms, rain and sunshine made qualifying for the third DTM round of the season at the Norisring in Nuremberg a thrilling affair. Reigning DTM champion Timo Scheider coped best with the difficult conditions in his Audi A4 DTM. With a lap time of 49.012 seconds, the 30-year old set the fastest time at the 2.3 kilometres long street circuit. “After four years, we have claimed the first pole position for Audi at the Norisring today. Of course, you always try to remain unaffected by the weather. But finding the right set-up was difficult today. Fortunately, we have made the right decisions”, said a happy Scheider. The German just prevented his fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekström from taking his third consecutive pole position. Scheider’s margin over Ekström was only one tenth of a second. For the Audi driver, it is the seventh pole of his DTM career and for Audi, it is the third pole in a row this season and the 47th in total.
Last year’s pole-sitter at the Norisring, Canadian Mercedes-Benz driver Bruno Spengler, will be starting from third place into Sunday’s race. “Today, qualifying was really difficult. There has never been as much radio contact between the team and myself as in this qualifying. However, in these conditions, I am quite happy with third place”, Spengler said. The 2005 DTM champion, Gary Paffett (GB), will be starting from fifth place with his AMG Mercedes C-Class.
As some drivers completed ten instead of eight laps in the third heat of the four-tier qualifying, the stewards of the meeting currently are deciding about the places five to 19. The main victim is Mercedes-Benz driver Ralf Schumacher, who missed out on the top four as a result. 20th place remains vacant, because the Kolles Futurecom-TME team withdrew its car with driver Johannes Seidlitz for the third round of the season.
The final result will follow after the official confirmation by the DMSB. The race on Sunday will be covering a distance of 80 laps or a total of 184 kilometres. The start is at 14.00 h (ARD live from 13.45 h).
Source : DTM