Gary Paffett on the front row
- Second on the grid ahead of Paul Di Resta
- Four C-Class cars within the top eight
Gary Paffett (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) will start Sunday’s sixth round of the 2010 DTM at Zandvoort from the front row of the grid. In the exciting single-lap qualifying of the four fastest drivers, Gary set a time of 1m32.286 and ended up second ahead of Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) who was on a 1m32.353. Timo Scheider (Audi) took pole position with a 1m31.590.
Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class), winner of two races this season and leader of the overall ranking, who had achieved five podium finishes out of five races so far qualified seventh on a 1m31.710. Ralf Schumacher (Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) came home eighth with a 1m32.106.
Qualifying, part 1: Bruno Spengler was third and thus the fastest C-Class driver with a time of 1m32.115. Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) was 15th with a 1m32.571 and missed Q2 by six hundredths of a second. David Coulthard (Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Class) qualified 17th (1m33.065) ahead of CongFu Cheng (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) with a 1m33.850.
Qualifying, part 2: Spengler was fastest with a 1m30.959. Jamie Green (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class), the best driver with a 2008 car and second of the overall ranking, ended up 11th with a 1m31.783. Maro Engel (GQ AMG Mercedes C-Class) qualified 14th with a 1m32.112.
Gary Paffett (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) second (1:32.286): “In 2005 and 2009, I won here at Zandvoort and second on the grid is hopefully a good basis for a repeat. With new tyres, my C-Class handled very well; however, with the used ones in the single-lap qualifying I was sliding and lacked grip. The entire lap was pretty messy, and therefore second place is ok.”
Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) third (1:32.363): “I didn’t make any major mistakes, but all in all my lap in the single-lap qualifying wasn’t really good. On the second row, I am still in a good position for the race. Tomorrow, I want improve further and score a lot of points.”
Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class) seventh (1:31.710): “In Q1 and Q2 my C-Class was perfect; however, all of a sudden the car ran not so well in the third part of qualifying. I don’t know why yet and we will have to research what happened. Moreover, I made a small mistake at the last corner of my qualifying lap, but I was not really fast anyway. Tomorrow I will push hard and score as many points as possible.”
Ralf Schumacher (Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) eighth (1:32.106): “In the previous two years, I didn’t perform here really well, so eighth on the grid is not too bad. On my last run I didn’t have grip, therefore I was not able to move up.”
Jamie Green (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class) 11th (1:31.783): “My laps were not so bad; however, with my 2008 C-Class I was just not able to go faster. I expect a difficult race tomorrow but I will push throughout. Points should be possible.”
Maro Engel (GQ AMG Mercedes C-Class) 14th (1:32.112): “I am not happy. I was four tenths faster than in this morning’s free practice, but that was still not fast enough. We will look into the data and see how we can do better on Sunday.”
Susie Stoddart (TV-Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) 15th (1:32.571): “The times are very really close together; unfortunately, I missed Q2 by six hundredths of a second. Due to my penalty from the Nürburgring, I will lose five positions and have to start from the back of the field, so it will be a tough race for me tomorrow.”
David Coulthard (Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Class) 17th (1:33.065): “I’m not surprised about my result; because this is a difficult track. I’m here for the first time with a touring car and I lack experience, so I made a few mistakes.”
CongFu Cheng (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) 18th (1:33.850): “On my second run, I ran wide over the kerbs and damaged the undertray of my car. Afterwards, I lacked balance and was not able to improve.”
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “Not quite the ideal qualifying result for us, but still the first and second rows of the grid for Gary and Paul – and points can be scored only tomorrow. Our most recent of four wins out of five races we also achieved from second on the grid. Here, Bruno posted the fastest lap of the day and was the only driver under 1m31 – unfortunately, one qualifying session too early; however, he is still in a good position to score reasonably. So far, everything is ok and we will push hard to be able to say the same tomorrow after the race.”
