Quotes after qualifying at Brands Hatch

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “It was good to see that in Q3 ‘Rocky’ managed to set the best lap time and that in sector one, which we were always struggling with quite a bit in practice, he even achieved the absolutely fastest time. In Q4 then the situation was extremely tight and seven hundredths of a second decided that he’d be on the second row of the grid. That’s a good starting base. Tomorrow in the race totally different things will count than in today’s qualifying where you simply had to manage a perfect lap.”

Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi A5 DTM), grid position 4
“In this qualifying event everything was possible. In the end I was only lacking a couple of thousandths to the front row – that’s a shame of course. But I think that together with the team I made the most out of qualifying. We were unhappy with the car here in both free practice sessions and made a lot of changes. The changes went in the right direction. In Q3 I was able to squeeze out everything but in Q4, I didn’t quite manage to do this. We’re having difficulties at the moment, so I’m not dissatisfied. The race here is long and we’ve got to see what the weather will do. Grid position four isn’t bad.”

Filipe Albuquerque (TV Movie Audi A5 DTM), grid position 6
“Qualifying was good. I missed Q4 by four hundredths of a second. That’s a shame. But we knew that the track at Brands Hatch is narrow and difficult. Position six gives me a good starting base for the race. I’d like to move forward some more in the race.”

Adrien Tambay (Audi ultra A5 DTM), grid position 7
“That was another good qualifying event. For the third time I’ve now improved. Seventh place is nice, especially when you see how narrow the gaps are in the field. I was only lacking five hundredths to make it into Q4. Now we want to convert our preparations into a good race result.”

Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A5 DTM), grid position 8
“Eighth place is not what I’d been dreaming of. Unfortunately, we were a couple of hundredths of a second too slow and are expecting a tough, long race. Driving consistently is important tomorrow. We can probably recover a few places.”

Edoardo Mortara (Playboy Audi A5 DTM), grid position 11
“This is a disappointing result. Especially the second qualifying session was difficult for me because of the adverse track conditions. After a car had an excursion there was a lot of grass and gravel on the track in the fast chicane in front of the last turn. Right when my tire grip was feeling best the track was unfortunately not in the best condition. It’s a bit unfortunate to have missed Q3 by a few hundredths.”

Miguel Molina (Red Bull Audi A5 DTM), grid position 12
“We all know how tight the situation is here. It was difficult to catch a free lap. We tried our best and finished twelfth. Now we’ve got to wait and see what’s possible in the race.”

Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi A5 DTM), grid position 15
“It’s difficult for me to find the right words because position 15 is a catastrophe. We tried everything and I don’t think it was due to a lack of effort on our part – you could see my excursion. We checked the car after the incident and it was okay. Afterwards I was lacking one and a half tenths to the front. On the one hand that’s not much but on the other it’s very frustrating.”

Rahel Frey (E-POSTBRIEF Audi A5 DTM), grid position 22
“In qualifying we’re not where we’re aiming to be. We’re struggling a bit with the car, aren’t coming up with the right set-up for doing a good job of driving over the kerbs – that’s a great challenge for the race. I can’t be pleased with position 22.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “It was a tight qualifying event. Everything had to fit in order to manage the fastest lap. In our case it didn’t fit, that’s why we didn’t make it into Q4. We’ll leave no stone unturned to come up with a good race set-up in order to advance tomorrow.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “After a difficult beginning in the free practice sessions it took us a long time to find the right set-up for ‘Rocky’s’ car. We managed that just in time for qualifying. In the third qualifying session we were even the fastest in the whole field. A big ‘well done’ to ‘Rocky’ on his good lap. In Q4 it didn’t fit quite as well anymore. Although the tires had just been run for one lap we were no longer good enough. Miguel (Molina) was among the top ten throughout the weekend. That’s why we don’t understand why he didn’t make it into Q3. He was a bit unfortunate in traffic – Jamie Green disconcerted him off a little. Still, I’m confident because his pace has always been right up to now. We can achieve a good race result with both cars.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “Naturally, I’m happy for Filipe Albuquerque. He finally managed a superb qualifying session after always having the speed in free practice. We’re pleased with P6. For Edo Mortara more would have been possible, but he had some traffic, which is normal on this track, though.”

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