Audi driver Prémat with strong DTM comeback

Alexandre Prémat had sustained a torn lumbar vertebrae in the season opening race at Hockenheim and had to skip the race at Oschersleben. Just shortly before this weekend, the 25-year-old received medical approval to compete again in the DTM.

The Frenchman was the only Audi driver who was able to translate the weight advantage of the 2006-spec vehicles into a good grid position in qualifying. His team-mate Christian Abt as well as Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr were already eliminated in the first section.

Only by a small margin, the leader of the standings, Mattias Ekström, missed making it into the top eight. At the very last moment, the Swede was bumped to position nine. His team-mates Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk will start the race from positions ten and eleven. Due to the regulations, their newest-generation Audi A4 DTM cars are 28 kilograms heavier at the EuroSpeedway than the new C-Class from Mercedes, which – as computer simulations have shown – costs almost half a second per lap.

Quotes after qualifying

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “It’s disappointing to have only one car among the top eight. Although we knew it would be very difficult here for our 2007-spec cars, we had been hoping to achieve better places with our cars from 2006. Alex (Prémat) has shown what is possible with such a car. We need to take a look at why the differences between the 2006-spec cars were so great. Now the only thing we can do in the race is to pursue the strategy of scoring as many points as possible. That’s what we have to prepare for.”

Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank Audi A4 DTM #17)
6th place, 1m 19.711s / 1m 19.029s / 1m 19.032s
“I’m very happy for Audi to have clinched sixth place in qualifying. But I’m a little disappointed about having made a few mistakes that cost me two, three tenths of a second. Otherwise, I could have even achieved a place further towards the front. I’m strictly surrounded by Mercedes drivers. That’s a real challenge! I want to have a good start and finish in the points.”

Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #3)
9th place, 1m 19.679s / 1m 19.303s
“That was a pretty tough qualifying! I gave everything and drove without making any mistakes. But we were simply not quick enough. For the race, we need to come up with more speed in order to move further towards the front.”

Timo Scheider (Gebrauchtwagen:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM #8)
10th place, 1m 19.350s / 1m 19.431s
“The qualifying was good in terms of the car and the team. It was the maximum of what was possible today. All laps were clean, but in the last two outings, in turn 9, there was dirt on the inside line. When I started braking, I encountered abrupt understeer there. Otherwise I might have been able to make it into the top eight, but we knew all along that it would be difficult.”

Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #4)
11th place, 1m 19.689s / 1m 19.444s
“We knew beforehand that we wouldn’t be able to run at the very front of the field. But the fact that now we’re in a pack right in the middle on places nine to eleven is a bit unfortunate too. I did expect that one or two of our cars would make into the last segment. As far as the way the weekend went, I’m satisfied because I had big problems in two turns, which I was able to solve. Now I’m on a par with Mattias (Ekström) and Timo (Scheider).”

Adam Carroll (Audi A4 DTM #20)
12th place, 1m 19.400s / 1m 19.543s
“It was good making it into the second section again. We were having difficulties, though, repeating our performances from the tests. In the DTM, there’s a lot of driving up to qualifying, which means that many drivers are able to make up ground after running behind in the beginning. I used the car’s full potential. Our grid position is better than last time. We can expect a nice race with a good result.”

Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM #11)
15th place, 1m 19.813s
“I’m pretty disappointed because, for the first time, I didn’t make it into the second qualifying segment. I thought this was going to happen at some point in time but didn’t expect it to be the case here of all places.”

Lucas Luhr (Philips Audi A4 DTM #12)
16th place, 1m 19.875s
“We were at least able to improve for the qualifying. For the first time, I set a time below 1m 20s. Perhaps I could have even been faster but I had a big slide because the tyres had degraded somewhat. This way, a better result just wasn’t possible.”

Christian Abt (Playboy Audi A4 DTM #16)
18th place, 1m 19.926s
“In my first outing I made a slight mistake. I drove through the gravel trap and damaged my front splitter in the process. After that, the car was understeering heavily. That’s really a shame considering what my team-mate Alex achieved today. Now I need to make up ground in the race.”

Markus Winkelhock (Siemens Audi A4 DTM #7)
19th place, 1m 19.972s
“I’m not really happy because I’d been hoping for a better result. In free practice I was only one tenth of a second away from the 2007-spec cars. In qualifying, I was unlucky in my first outing because a car in front was throwing dirt onto the track, which forced me to end the lap. On the second set of tyres I made two mistakes of my own. I was lacking three tenths to Mattias (Ekström) – that way I didn’t get ahead any further.”

Vanina Ickx (Audi A4 DTM #21)
20th place, 1m 20.840s
“I’m worried about the fact that I’m beginning to get used to this position. Particularly on this circuit it’s difficult for me to improve my times. That’s why I don’t know either what to expect of the race. My goal has to be to drive as consistently as possible and to improve.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “If I’m really honest, I have to say that I was afraid of a result like this: We knew the weight of our vehicles this weekend and could therefore figure out what our gap would be to those in front of us. Our squad is lined up firmly, Mattias (Ekström) almost made it into the top eight. Our vocabulary does not contain a word like ‘surrender’: Tomorrow we’re going to fight and use our full potential.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “The trend is pointing upwards for our team. Having Alex Prémat as the best Audi driver in qualifying, does fill us with a certain sense of pride. Christian Abt, unfortunately, made a mistake in the first segment, and he drove through the gravel trap. The splitter was damaged, the car kept understeering after that. Too bad! I’m that, otherwise, he would have finished far at the front. ”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “I’m totally confused. Actually, we should have been the second-strongest power here. But we aren’t, and we don’t know why yet.”

The starting grid at the EuroSpeedway

1 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes), 1m 18.408s
2 Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes), 1m 18.521s
3 Paul di Resta (Mercedes), 1m 18.660s
4 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes), 1m 18.730s
5 Jamie Green (Mercedes), 1m 18.985s
6 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.032s
7 Alexandros Margaritis (Mercedes), 1m 19.263s
8 Daniel la Rosa (Mercedes), 1m 19.370s
9 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.303s
10 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.431s
11 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.444s
12 Adam Carroll (Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.543s
13 Gary Paffett (Mercedes), 1m 19.553s
14 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes), 1m 19.701s
15 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.813s
16 Lucas Luhr (Philips Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.875s
17 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes), 1m 19.903s
18 Christian Abt (Playboy Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.926s
19 Markus Winkelhock (Siemens Audi A4 DTM), 1m 19.972s
20 Vanina Ickx (Audi A4 DTM), 1m 20.840s