Tom Kristensen took Pole Position in today’s DTM Qualifying, edging the Mercedes of Paul di Resta by 0.064 seconds in Q4.
Kristensen looked most impressive in Q3 however, posting a blindingly fast time that nobody could even get close to. Fellow Audi driver Martin Tomczyk took 3rd position, and was the 4th fastest qualifier in Q3, crucially knocking Gary Paffett out of the Q4 Pole Shootout. 4th position was initally held by Bruno Spengler, but on his final lap seemed to have a mechnanical issue with his car, and a few corners after the finish, he came to a halt on the track.
It turned out Spengler had run out of fuel, thanks to an error by his pitcrew, who used the wrong fuel can and thus had not put enough fuel in the car to finish the session. Thus, the car failed scrutineering for not having the minimum requirement of fuel onboard, and Spengler was demoted to 8th on the grid.
This put Paffet in 4th position, followed by the other two works Audis of Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström, and Alex Premat‘s 2008-spec Audi A4.
Scheider was not happy with his qualifying performance, with two of his biggest championship rivals qualifying ahead of him, “Sixth place isn't a dream result. But things just didn't fit perfectly in Q2 and 3. I didn't get the front wheels to work the way they should have. The lap wasn't perfect all the way. And considering the close gaps today that simply meant there was no chance to make it into Q4. That was a bit frustrating.”
Conversely, Nortbert Haug was pleased with qualifying, taking into account the weight disadvantage of the Mercedes cars, “The pole was possible for Paul – he missed the top spot on the grid by 64 thousandths and our weight handicap of 10 kilograms after four wins in seven races converts to two tenths of a second. We have three C-Class cars ahead of the two overall leaders, a good basis to modify the ranking in the championship in our favour tomorrow.”
As long as he gets a good start, a win seems likely for Kristensen, as Di Resta and Co. will be more interested in scoring a good haul of points rather than gunning it for victory.
Qualifying Results
