Photo: Audi Media

Qualifying couldn’t have gone better for Audi

Miguel Molina clinched his first pole of the season in style, out qualifying team mate at Audi Team Abt Sportsline by just 16 thousands of a second. It was the third pole position for the Ingolstadt manufacturer who, with six cars in the top 10, eyes the possibility of winning the Manufacturers’ title.

Miguel Molina was the star of the day, with a strong performance since the very first practice session. The Spaniard was living the moment, and happy to be able to keep his pole this time: “It’s always great to be on the pole position and especially here at Hockenheim in the season finale. The hard work of the past weeks has paid off. My team did a great job. I’m very happy about being able to give something back. I now have a good chance of celebrating my first victory in the DTM tomorrow.”

Mattias Ekström had a nice duel with his team mate for pole position, and was happy with his performance and with the team result: “Having a strong qualifying session is always fun. And 16 thousandths of a second to the pole position isn’t a large deficit. Things are looking good for the race: I’m hoping for us to be able to celebrate a proper Audi party tomorrow.”

Edoardo Mortara was third for tomorrow’s grid. The Italian driver from Audi Sport Team Abt felt over the moon and keeps his eyes in trying to be second in the Drivers’ standings: “I’m one of the happiest men in the paddock at the moment. Looking back on the problems we had in free practice, this is a fantastic result. We made a few changes after free practice and they worked out in qualifying. Now I’m hoping for us to have an equally good day on Sunday.”

Dieter Gass, Head of DTM for Audi Sport was smiling from ear to ear after the qualifying, confident of the job well done: “It could hardly have gone any better than this: six Audi cars in the top eight and three of them at the very front of course we’re very happy with the qualifying session. Before the weekend and after free practice, we could only dream of this. When such a dream comes true and the starting base for the race and the battle for the manufacturers’ championship is as good as it looks right now, we can tackle the day tomorrow with optimism.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt, Team Director of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, was very happy with his men’s performance: “An incredible day for us with three of our drivers in the top three places. I’m totally happy that things went this way. You could tell that we did a lot of work in the free practice sessions and that paid off.”

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Motorsport, remarked the important step made towards the Manufacturers’ title: ““It could hardly have gone any better than this: six Audi cars in the top eight and three of them at the very front  of course we’re very happy with the qualifying session. Before the weekend and after free practice, we could only dream of this. When such a dream comes true and the starting base for the race and the battle for the manufacturers’ championship is as good as it looks right now, we can tackle the day tomorrow with optimism.”

Audi trails BMW by just 21 points in the Manufacturers’ table and, should they keep the strong performance seen today, they could end the year as champions.” ””