Audi - 200th DTM race for Audi

Three Audi A5 DTM cars on the two front rows of the grid tomorrow. “Heat battle” and full stands

---

Ingolstadt/Nürburg, August 18, 2012 - Audi has worked out a good starting base for the upcoming "heat battle" of the DTM at the Nürburgring. After a strong qualifying performance, three Audi A5 DTM cars will start from the two front rows on Sunday (live on "Das Erste" starting at 13:45 local time).

It is the 200th DTM race for the brand with the Four Rings and expected to be one of the hottest. After the thermometer showed over 30 degrees as early as in the battle for the best grid positions and track temperatures heated up to more than 45 degrees, the race on Sunday in front of completely filled stands is expected to become even hotter. "This will be an extremely tough race for everyone," Audi Head of Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich is convinced. "But with three vehicles on the two front rows of the grid we’ve got a good starting base. The result also shows that the work of the past weeks and months is bearing fruit. All of our drivers are making very positive statements here about their cars."

At the DTM’s first event after the summer break, Audi left a strong impressions right from the first practice session on Friday that was confirmed on Saturday. With 1m 23.950s, Mike Rockenfeller in the Schaeffler Audi A5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Phoenix that is based at the Nürburgring drove the fastest qualifying time in Q3. In Q4, though, the Le Mans winner made a mistake in the first sector that caused him to drop to fourth place. "Without that, pole would have been possible," said "Rocky." "The car was superb today."

Edoardo Mortara (Playboy Audi A5 DTM) and Filipe Albuquerque (TV Movie Audi A5 DTM) did not manage any perfect laps in the crucial last qualifying segment either but secured grid positions two and three for Audi Sport Team Rosberg nonetheless. "I’m happy to be on the front row but I made too many small mistakes in this qualifying session - including in Q4," said Edoardo Mortara. "I’m sure that with a good lap we could have clinched the pole position today. But it’s still a great result for Audi Sport Team Rosberg. We were the best two Audi drivers today and are starting from positions two and three. This means we’ve got good chances in the race tomorrow."

The quickest driver of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline was Timo Scheider, who at the wheel of the AUTO TEST Audi A5 DTM posted the tenth-best time. Mattias Ekström in the Red Bull Audi A5 DTM will be starting into the race alongside leader of the standings Gary Paffett from grid position twelve. Last year’s winner, who most recently took the pole position at the Nürburgring two consecutive times and is currently the Audi driver with the best points score in the overall standings, had to stop his fastest lap at the end of Q2 due to yellow flags.

Miguel Molina (Red Bull Audi A5 DTM) and Adrien Tambay (Audi ultra A5 DTM) took positions 13 and 16. Tambay lost valuable track time in the morning due to a defective generator.

A strong performance was shown by Rahel Frey (E-POSTBRIEF Audi A5 DTM). On the track on which she won a Formula 3 race in 2009 she barely missed making it into Q2 by 0.018 seconds. By taking grid position 17, the Swiss achieved her best qualifying result so far in the 2012 season.