60th pole position for Audi in the DTM

60th pole position for Audi in the DTM

• Mattias Ekström at the Nürburgring again on grid position one

• Strong: Six Audi A4 DTM cars on the top eight grid positions

• First pole position of the year for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline

Ingolstadt/Nürburg, August 6, 2011 – Jubilee for Audi: Mattias Ekström clinched

the 60th pole position in the DTM for the brand with the four rings at the

Nürburging. In changeable weather the Swede from Audi Sport Team Abt

Sportsline set the fastest time by far in Saturday’s qualifying. With six A4 DTM

cars on the top eight grid positions Audi showed a strong overall team

performance.

Mattias Ekström is back: A week after winning the 24-hour race at Spa-

Francorchamps at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS together with Timo Scheider and Greg Franchi the Swede secured the pole position for the sixth round of the DTM.

Ekström last started into a race from the top grid position exactly one year ago, also

at the Nürburgring.

“Today simply everything fit perfectly and my team always made exactly the right

decisions,” raved the two-time DTM champion. In view of the difficult conditions this

was anything but an easy feat. Drizzling rain repeatedly set in. Particularly the first

and last qualifying segments became a gamble.

As early as in Q3 Ekström was the front runner although he only drove one timed lap

in order to save his tires for the final shoot-out for pole. On the partially moist track

he subsequently put a more than three-second gap between himself and Mercedes

driver Jamie Green.

Ekström’s team-mate Mike Rockenfeller secured position three on the grid. In Q4

the 2010 Le Mans winner made a mistake in turn one. In the end he was merely

lacking 298 thousandths of a second to position two. “Naturally, it would have been

even nicer to start from the front row together with ‘Eki’,” said “Rocky.” “But third

place is also a good starting base for the race.”

Another Audi driver, Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Team Rosberg), almost managed

the leap into the top four as well. A small mistake at the beginning of his second

timed lap in Q3 though cost the crucial time. By clinching position five the DTM

rookie nonetheless achieved the second-best qualifying result in his still young

career.

Miguel Molina, Martin Tomczyk (Audi Sport Team Phoenix) and Timo Scheider

completed Audi’s strong qualifying result. Tomczyk, the runner-up in the standings,

was the quickest driver in Q1 and second in Q2, but then failed to achieve his

personal best time again in Q3. “It was very difficult today in the changing

conditions,” said Tomczyk. “But anything is still possible from position seven.”

Filipe Albuquerque is starting from position twelve. Oliver Jarvis in Q1 went out too

late again on the track as it was drying off after a rain shower and thus dropped to

position 15. By taking position 16 Rahel Frey equalized her so far best qualifying

result in the DTM in difficult conditions.

“It was very difficult for everyone today and Q4 was no doubt a bit of a gamble,”

commented Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “But before then we

already had six Audi cars in the top eight. That ‘Eki’ clinched pole in the end by

delivering a perfect lap in these difficult conditions was a fantastic performance.”

Audi Sport.