Aug 31, 2008
At the DTM’s ninth round at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona (Spain) leader of the standings Timo Scheider will again start from the first row of the grid. In the most gripping qualifying session the season has seen so far the Audi "factory" driver was merely 31 thousandths of a second short of reaching the pole position.
In the third and crucial qualifying segment the 29-year-old was bumped from first to second place by record champion Bernd Schneider only in the last second. Nevertheless, Scheider can be satisfied: all of his rivals in the title fight will line up behind his GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM on the grid on Sunday. Scheider himself starts from the front row for the sixth time this year.
Each of the first three rows are shared by an Audi and a Mercedes driver. Martin Tomczyk, who had secured the pole position at Barcelona during the past two years, will start from position four, Mattias Ekström from sixth place. The first six cars were separated in qualifying by a razor-thin gap of merely 156 thousandths of a second.
A strong performance was shown by Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Prémat as well. The two youngsters, who had captured the title in the european-based Le Mans Series with the Audi R10 TDI at Silverstone last Sunday, made it into the final qualifying segment in their year-old cars and will share the fourth row of the grid on Sunday.
Tom Kristensen was very unlucky yet again: The Dane was the quickest in the first qualifying segment and about to set another top time in the second session as well when he caught the Mercedes of Gary Paffett. Finishing ninth, the Le Mans record winner missed the leap into the top eight for the second time in a row.
With eight A4 DTM cars on the first six rows, the Audi squad has achieved a good starting base for the race on Sunday, in which tyre wear will play a crucial role. ARD will broadcase live from Barcelona on "Das Erste" starting at 1:45 p.m. (CEST). As usual, Audi.tv airs highlights and background reports.
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