Bernd Schneider with pole in Barcelona - Timo Scheider on course for title
Barcelona. In qualifying for the ninth DTM season round, DTM record champion Bernd Schneider claimed his first pole position since qualifying at Zandvoort in 2005. In a heart-stopping final, the 44-year old driver took his AMG Mercedes C-Class to a fastest lap time of 1:07.248 minutes in the final second. Thus, Schneider toppled the leader in the points? standings, Audi driver Timo Scheider, with the tiny margin of only 31 thousandths of a second. ?I hadn?t expected to claim pole today after qualifying had been my weak point all season so far?, Schneider said, happy with the 25th pole position of his career in the DTM.
Third on the grid for Sunday?s 172.666 kilometres long race, which will get underway at 2 pm, is Scotsman Paul di Resta (Mercedes-Benz). Di Resta and Briton Jamie Green (Mercedes-Benz) are third in the points? standings, nine points behind Scheider. In qualifying, Green ended up fifth fastest behind the Barcelona pole sitter of 2006 and 2007 and the race winner of 2006, Martin Tomczyk.
Defending DTM champion Mattias Ekstr?m from Sweden (Audi) will be starting the ninth season round from sixth place on the third row. His fellow Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller landed a huge surprise by qualifying seventh with his year-old Audi. Only one week before, the 24-year old German had won the championship title in the European-based Le Mans Series for Audi. Pr?mat will be starting from eighth place.
Qualifying didn?t go too well for Mercedes-Benz driver Ralf Schumacher. The German was already sidelined after the first shoot-out heat. Schumacher will be starting from 17th place on the grid. Danish Audi driver Tom Kristensen and Canadian Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz) also failed to make it into the third and decisive heat and will be starting from ninth and tenth place for the 58 lap race.
Bernd Schneider (1st grid position, Original-Teile AMG Mercedes): ?Today?s pole wasn?t necessarily what people could expect from me. It is the first time since Zandvoort in 2005 for me to be starting from first place again. It has always been clear to me that I would make it back on pole one day. But I was a bit surprised myself that it happened here. Especially when you consider that I only set the fastest time on my final one of three laps in the last heat.?
Timo Scheider (2nd grid position, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?Congratulations to Bernd. He is always a driver to be reckoned with. I hope that the journalists don?t forget the decisive ?n? in the name, because Bernd really has deserved pole today. Fortunately, it is Bernd who is in front of me and my main rivals who are behind me.?
Paul di Resta (3rd grid position, AMG Mercedes): ?Third place on the grid is all right. However, it is annoying that I set the fastest lap time of the day, but unfortunately, I did so in the second heat, which doesn?t decide on the final grid positions. The situation for the race isn?t bad and we are working on being even further up to the front in the race than in qualifying.?
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?In fact, Bernd?s pole isn?t a sensation, but yet it is one. That Bernd Schneider is on pole for the 25th time is quite an achievement. Bernd has been strong throughout the weekend. That he claimed pole on his third lap shows that he still had more potential. With an extremely exciting qualifying session, the DTM again has shown today how close it can be. Paul di Resta in third and Jamie Green in fifth place also got themselves a good position to start from. Our long-runs from yesterday were good. We have good chances and hope that we can benefit from them tomorrow.?
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?I am very happy with the result. Timo Scheider was good enough to be on pole, but that goes for all drivers on the first three rows. That is a good basis for an exciting race. Spectators can look forward to Sunday. For Tom Kristensen, who didn?t have a chance of a good lap after getting stuck in traffic, qualifying was somewhat disappointing. It shouldn?t remain unnoticed that two Audi drivers with 2007-spec cars have made it into the top eight. I am happy with that. I am confident that we will be able to play a major role in the battle for victory tomorrow. We have made ourselves a tactic and want to score as many points as possible.?
