Green takes pole at Lauzitz

Due to the changeable conditions, the qualifying session and the Super Pole at the Lausitzring turned out to be a true gamble. At the end of the day, British Mercedes-Benz driver Jamie Green won the battle for the top position on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

“I’m very proud of having secured my maiden DTM pole,” beamed last year’s Formula 3 Euro Series Champion.

On the way to his pole, the 23-year old lapped the drying circuit in 1:17.489 minutes. Just as it was the case in the previous DTM round, at Zandvoort, the top three on the grid were once again completed by two Opel drivers.

In his Opel Vectra GTS V8, former Formula One ace Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified second by setting a Super Pole lap time that was just 19 hundredth of a second slower than the one of the pole-sitter, while his team-mate, Manuel Reuter, will be third on the grid for tomorrow’s 48-lap race, the ninth round of the DTM season that will start at 14:00hrs CET (covered live by the German TV station ARD from 13:45hrs).

Two-time Formula One World Champion Mika Häkkinen qualified fourth, on the 3.442-kilometre track, while the third and fourth row grid positions will make for a particularly thrilling situation, with the two title-favourites, Audi’s Mattias Ekström and Gary Paffett (DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG-Mercedes) being fifth and seventh on the grid. Ekström qualified fifth and will share the third row with his team-mate Tom Kristensen while seventh placed Gary Paffett will start the race next to Martin Tomczyk (Audi A4 DTM).

Prior to tomorrow’s race, AMG-Mercedes C-Class driver Paffett holds a one-point lead over Ekström (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline). Paffett won this year’s first DTM race at the EuroSpeedway, yet, in 2004, Ekström was the winner at the Lausitz.