Best time of the day for Audi at the Nürburgring

In the morning, heavy rain had caused changes to be made to the schedule and a wet first test in which Prémat in position three was the best Audi driver as well. Although the track was dry in the afternoon, it was very slippery.

As usual in the DTM, the Audi drivers on Friday primarily concentrated on working out the set-up for the race. Grid positions will be determined in the three-part qualifying practice on Saturday, which for the first time will be broadcast live and completely via IP-TV at www.dtm.com from 1:28 p.m. (local time). ARD will air a summary report starting at 3:35 p.m.

Quotes after Friday’s tests

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “It was possible to work out a rain set-up in the morning and a dry set-up in the afternoon. Nevertheless, on the dry track in the afternoon grip was poor in the beginning. This made it difficult to verify the changes. Now we’re comparing all the data, and for Saturday, which – hopefully – will remain dry, we want to work out a set-up that suits everyone.”

Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank Audi A4 DTM #17)
3rd place / 1st place, 1m 24.382s
“I’m very satisfied with the way the day went because the team and I did a good job. In the rain as well as in dry conditions we were always far at the front. For the qualifying, we’ve already worked out a good set-up. Now we need to prepare ourselves for the racing distance. I’m happy that the 2006-spec Audi is very quick here as well. A good result should again be possible.”

Tom Kristensen (Siemens Audi A4 DTM #7)
4th place / 2nd place, 1m 24.493s
“It’s difficult to make a sound statement after this Friday. The Nürburgring showed its two faces today. We found a good set-up for both dry and wet conditions. The competition is very strong, so our engineers and mechanics will definitely not have a quiet, relaxing evening today.”

Timo Scheider (Gebrauchtwagen:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM #8)
7th place / 5th place, 1m 24.711s
“That was a very eventful day with lots of rain in the morning. I’m not satisfied with the session this afternoon because we had a few difficulties with the steering, which held up our set-up work to some extent. We’re going to sort this now and after that we’ll be part of the action all the way again tomorrow.”

Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #3)
13th place / 10th place, 1m 25.028s
“In any event, it was good that we were able to complete so many laps in wet conditions this morning so that we were able to come up with a decent set-up already for rain. The dry afternoon session was okay too – but there’s definitely still a lot of room for improvement here after we’ve had a chance to look at the data.”

Markus Winkelhock (Audi A4 DTM #20)
15th place / 11th place, 1m 25.107s
“At the end it was quite okay. In the first test we still had a few problems in the rain. We clearly had weaknesses with traction. In the dry, things were going pretty well. On my fastest lap I was even on the grass with two wheels. So we’re not doing too badly with the 2005-spec car.”

Christian Abt (Playboy Audi A4 DTM #16)
5th place / 13th place, 1m 25.269s
“I’m satisfied because we split the tasks between us pretty well. I concentrated on longer distances, Alex (Prémat) on qualifying. We’re positioned very well. That makes us feel confident about Saturday.”

Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #4)
6th place / 14th place, 1m 25.281s
“My Friday: fair to middling – like the weather. There were some minor problems, and we still need to find out what caused them. We’ve made a lot of changes, which helped as well. But it’s never pleasant to start to a weekend like this. But: we’re going to get it right for Saturday and Sunday.”

Lucas Luhr (Philips Audi A4 DTM #12)
19th place / 15th place, 1m 25.323s
“Driving in the rain was very important for me because I’m lacking experience in the rain with the DTM car. Unfortunately, there was a braking problem at the end, that’s why I had to stop early. In dry conditions there was a lack of grip.”

Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM #11)
12th place / 17th place, 1m 25.386s
“It was a good thing that we were able to work with a rain set-up once. In the wet we were pretty satisfied – we found out quite a few things and I was able to get used to the car really well. In dry conditions I made a mistake on my second set of tyres. So I should have been better by three, four tenths and that would have put me further towards the front in the overall result. Alexandre’s (Prémat) time is very good – that’s the benchmark. We’re still lacking quite a bit.”

Vanina Ickx (Audi A4 DTM #21)
17th place / 20th place, 1m 26.126s
“It’s been good to drive again after a longer break. In the rain, conditions were difficult, but it went well. In the dry, our objective was to set consistent lap times. Unfortunately, I was still a bit too slow but the feeling in the cockpit is good.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “Due to the changing weather conditions we completed the first test in rain and the second in dry conditions. Nevertheless, we’re satisfied on the whole. As always, we did our work on Friday and are now preparing for Saturday.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “In the wet session the car was difficult to drive at first. Both drivers were complaining about a lack of grip. Towards the end, it got a little better. If it should rain again we still need to come up with something. In dry conditions we consistently improved. With Alex (Prémat), it was very good and at the end he was clocking best times on new tyres. With Christian’s (Abt) results we’re not satisfied yet. We’ll probably take over the data from the other car.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “In the rain things weren’t bad at all. At the end we were a little late with the last set of tyres. In the afternoon our cars were slipping and sliding too much.”