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Green takes his second pole

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The showdown in the battle for the 2005 DTM title is on. In front of crowded grandstands, the 20 DTM drivers contested the 2005 season’s final fight for the grid positions, with Mercedes-Benz driver Jamie Green turning out to be the most successful man.

On the drying track, the Briton set the fastest lap time of the ten drivers that were the fastest in the qualifying session, thus qualifying for the single-lap shoot-out. By lapping the 4.574-kilometre Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg in 1:45.294 minutes the 23-year old defeated all his rivals and secured pole position.

“The lap wasn’t perfect but good enough to gain pole,” beamed Green who was delighted to have taken his second pole position of the season. Denmark’s Tom Kristensen (Audi Sport Team Abt) was just 0.076 slower than the pole-sitter and will share the first row on the grid with Green, while Bernd Schneider, who won last year’s race at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, qualified third, in his AMG-Mercedes C-Class.

In the close battle for the championship between Sweden’s Audi driver Mattias Ekström and Mercedes-Benz driver Gary Paffett, the Briton clearly improved his promising initial position regarding the championship. While reigning DTM Champion Ekström failed to qualify for the Super Pole, for the first time in 2005, and had to settle for 15th grid position for the 37-lap race (169,238 kilometres) that will start tomorrow at 14:00hrs (ARD live coverage from 13:45hrs), Paffett, who holds a nine-point lead over Ekström, will be sixth on the grid for the season finale at the Hockenheimring.

For the third time this season, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the best qualifier of the Opel drivers. In the Super Pole, the German took his Opel Vectra GTS V8 to fourth position on the grid, with Frank Stippler in his Audi A4 DTM qualifying fifth. Thanks to Marcel Fässler and Laurent Aiello taking eighth and tenth grid positions respectively, three Opels made it to the top ten.

Audi driver Martin Tomczyk (seventh) and Mika Häkkinen (ninth), the idol of the public, completed the top ten on the grid for the race on Sunday.