Audi again well positioned at Nürburgring
- DTM weekend in the Eifel starts with Audi setting best time
- DTM leader Timo Scheider second twice
Title defender Audi is again well positioned for the DTM’s seventh race of the season. The DTM weekend at the Nürburgring started with a best time set by Audi. In the second test in the afternoon the new Audi A4 DTM cars were part of the action at the very front of the field in changing track conditions as well.
The quickest Audi driver yet again was DTM leader Timo Scheider, who set the second-quickest time in his GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM in both tests. In the morning the German only had to admit defeat to his team-mate Tom Kristensen. In the afternoon Scheider was just lacking 0.108 seconds to the quickest of the day, Bruno Spengler (Mercedes), despite the fact that he had to prematurely stop the test due to a differential problem.
“Of course it’s a shame that I wasn’t able to drive the last 20 minutes, in which we wanted to do a long run,” said the Audi driver. “But looking at the fact that I was only short a tenth of a second to the best time despite the problem makes me feel very optimistic for tomorrow.“
“Unfortunately, unlike his team colleagues, Timo (Scheider) wasn’t able to complete the whole programme we’d planned,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “We’re going to sort that for tomorrow, analyse the data and try and make the best use of this for qualifying. Generally, the grip conditions heavily changed today during both tests.”
The whole Audi squad left a strong impression on Friday: In the morning, seven Audi A4 DTM cars were in the top ten places. In the afternoon Audi dominated the top as well with six drivers.
On Saturday the weather might add some more excitement to the qualifying as thunderstorms and rain showers have been forecast. Due to the TV coverage of the Tour de France the qualifying only starts at 6:48 p.m., which is unusually late. ARD will broadcast the fight for the top grid positions live starting at 6:45 p.m. (local time). The free practice (2:30 to 3:30 p.m.) can be watched live on the internet at www.dtm.tv. Audi.tv reports from the Nürburgring as well.