Quotes after the race at Hockenheim

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport)
“Jamie Green was the quickest driver throughout the race today. But we achieved our aims here nonetheless. We won the team championship as well and clinched the runner-up’s slot in the championship with Mattias Ekström. It’s been a perfect DTM season for Audi with seven victories and the champion’s title for Martin (Tomczyk). And I don’t think that the DTM has often seen eight drivers from one marque mounting the podium in one year.”

Martin Tomczyk (Schaeffler Audi A4 DTM), 2nd place
“It was an outstanding race and a nice conclusion of the season, which I enjoyed very much. I wasn’t able to completely keep up with Jamie’s (Green) pace, but that was secondary today. It was great to finish the year on the podium and to start into the winter break this way. My thanks go to everyone in Audi Sport Team Phoenix and at Audi who has supported me. It’s been a brilliant season.”

Miguel Molina (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), 3rd place
“A tremendous race. Unfortunately, I made a small mistake at the start but then we had a good pace and were fighting for positions. It’s great to have mounted the podium in the last race of the Audi A4 DTM. I’m also happy about my pole position. We’d like to continue like this.”

Mike Rockenfeller (E-POSTBRIEF Audi A4 DTM), 4th place
“Obviously, I’d have preferred a podium finish after starting from position four. I had a good start. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a drop in brake performance. I tried to maintain my position. On the last set of tires we corrected the air pressure a little. That led to a slight improvement and I was able to enlarge the gap to Gary Paffett a bit. It was a little easier for me then but the front runners were out of my reach by that time. That’s a shame. On the other hand, we still clinched the team championship with Abt. So it ended on a relatively positive note after all.”

Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), 6th place
“I’m very pleased. As far as performance goes, this has been my best season in the DTM. In the first half the results weren’t the way I’d have liked them to be, but the second half was very good. On the whole, I’m proud and happy. We made a lot of improvements in the Abt team and the people from Audi Sport worked hard as well. We’ve learned a lot for the coming season.”

Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi A4 DTM), 7th place
“I had a very good start and almost gained two positions. I’d have had to attack Mike (Rockenfeller) harder to move forward but with respect to the team championship I chose not to. During the first first stint Mike was relatively slow. The opposite was true for me: I was quick in the beginning and then a bit slower. I’d have wished for that to have been a bit different at the finale. But this picture fits the whole season, which is over now.”

Oliver Jarvis (Audi Sport performance cars A4 DTM), 8th place
“We had a good race and a strong pace. The start and the first lap were good. In the end I was slowed a bit behind Timo (Scheider). Unfortunately, we didn’t score a larger number of points.”

Filipe Albuquerque (TV Movie Audi A4 DTM), 10th place
“I had a good start and a few battles in the first turns. Mattias Ekström overtook me. We had good pit stops and a fitting strategy. I was then faster than Spengler but didn’t get close enough to him to overtake him. I learned a lot this season. It’s a big difference between the first race at Hockenheim and the season finale here. But I still need to learn more.”

Edoardo Mortara (Playboy Audi A4 DTM), 13th place
“It was a difficult race and a pretty disappointing weekend for me. We need to analyze what went wrong here. But the most important thing this year was winning the rookie championship. This allowed us to show that we’re competitive. I’d like to thank Audi and my team for always having supported me in good as well as in hard times and for being at my side. Even though the result at the finale wasn’t so great, it’s been a good season. I’d like to continue that way in 2012.”

Rahel Frey (Glamour Audi A4 DTM), 16th place
“My start was bad and my nerves were shaking. The race had a weak beginning but a good ending. I’m quite pleased. The times were solid; we had two very good pit stops and finished the race without damage. For me it’s been a nice close of the season. My thanks go to all the people that have supported me this season.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “We achieved the aims we’d set ourselves at Hockenheim. We won the team title and Mattias Ekström’s position as the runner-up shows what kind of a recovery he delivered all the way up to the end. I can only thank the whole team for the good performances. I’m absolutely happy. The result shows that we’re well set for 2012. The whole team is very motivated after this season.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “A fantastic conclusion of the season! We scored points at ten races and achieved another podium at the finale after our early title win. It’s hard to beat such a string of successes. Again, many, many thanks from me to my team, to Martin (Tomczyk) and to Audi. And of course to all who had faith in us and are happy for us to have achieved this result. It’s a shame that Rahel (Frey) was a bit nervous at the start and was given a drive-through penalty for jump starting. Unfortunately, that way she deprived herself of some of the fruits of her learning this year.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “’Well done’ to Audi. They won the championship with Team Phoenix and Martin Tomczyk. Abt took the runner-up’s slot in the championship with Mattias Ekström and won the team championship. We had the best rookies in team Rosberg. That’s a nice result. Mercedes won the last race. Today everyone can be happy in the paddock. Unfortunately, from our grid positions we couldn’t achieve more in the race – that’s a shame. Still, it’s been a good season. My thanks to everyone and congratulations to Audi!”

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