Bruno Spengler for the fourth time in a row second on the Grid
Five AMG Mercedes C-Class cars on positions two, three, four, five and six
Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class) will start Sunday’s fifth round of the 2010 DTM at the Nürburgring from the front row of the grid. In the single-lap qualifying of the four fastest drivers, Bruno set a time of 1m24.212 and was second. He will start from the front row for the 15th time in 57 DTM races. Pole Position went to Mattias Ekström (Audi) which means that Mercedes-Benz leads with three poles out of five races whilst Audi has two.
Behind them there are four more AMG Mercedes C-Class cars: Jamie Green (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class), the winner of the Norisring race five weeks ago, was third with a 1m24.310 followed by Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) on a 1m24.376. Gary Paffett (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) qualified fifth on the grid with a 1m23.748. Ralf Schumacher (1m23.854) the pole sitter of the previous race at the Norisring was sixth fastest and will start alongside Gary on row three.
Qualifying, part 1: Bruno Spengler was fastest with a 1m23.864. CongFu Cheng (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) ended up 18th with a 1m25.125 and therefore missed the second round of qualifying.
Qualifying, part 2: Bruno Spengler improved by one and a half tenths of a second and was again the fastest in the field with a 1m23.710. David Coulthard (Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Class) came home 10th with a 1m24.093 and missed the top eight and thus Q3 by four hundredths of a second. Maro Engel (GQ AMG Mercedes C-Class) ended up 12th with a 1m24.455 whilst Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) qualified 14th with a 1m25.537.
Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class) second (1:24.212): “I am happy with second place. Of course I had hoped for pole position until the very end, but Mattias Ekström was a little bit faster today. I will start on the inside and maybe I can already pass him at the first corner. My team did a great job and I can hopefully reward them tomorrow with maximum points.”
Jamie Green (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class) third (1:24.310): “Third place is not bad with a last year’s car. In Q3 I was even second. My guys worked really well and I thank all of them. A podium finish tomorrow would be a nice reward and I will fight for it.”
Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) fourth (1:24.378): “Fourth on the grid is quite OK. Jamie and Bruno were a bit faster today, but in the race anything can happen. Tomorrow I want to do better.”
Gary Paffett (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) fifth (1:23.748): “I improved from practice to practice, so fifth place is good. Unfortunately I was not able to post the same times as Jamie and Bruno, but it will be a long race and everything is possible.”
Ralf Schumacher (Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) sixth (1:23.854): “Sixth place is not bad. Last year I qualified 15th so I improved significantly. Unfortunately I didn’t manage a clean lap and therefore missed the single-lap qualifying by a little more than a tenth. It’s a shame, but I should be able to achieve a good result also from row three.”
David Coulthard (Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Class) 10th (1:24.093): “I’m satisfied with my result. My team followed my suggestions after free practice and I improved by about half a second. Now I will focus on the start to get a good basis for the rest of the race.”
Maro Engel (GQ AMG Mercedes C-Class) 12th (1:24.455): “I was sixth in Q1 which was really motivating; however, this season we are not able to keep the same good balance throughout the entire qualifying. In Q2 I suffered from oversteer and was not able to improve.”
Susie Stoddart (TV-Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) 14th (1:25.537): “12th place in the first part of qualifying was not bad, but in Q2 I struggled with my tyres and dropped back.”
CongFu Cheng (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) 18th (1:25.125): “In this morning’s free practice I felt a lot more comfortable on this track than in qualifying; however, I cannot explain why. My team mates showed a solid pace, but I was not able to do the same.”
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “Congratulations to Mattias on pole position and thank you to our guys for position, two, three, four, five and six – a performance with a star.
For the fourth consecutive time, Bruno will start second on the front row. With the C-Class with which he won the Norisring race three times in a row, Jamie was only two and a half tenths slower than Ekström in Q3. A good qualifying also from Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard. David missed Q3 by just four hundredths of a second. A good team performance by HWA headed by Gerhard Ungar and by our partners Persson and Mücke. We hope to show a similar performance tomorrow.”
