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Green on pole at Norisring

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Jamie Green secured yet another DTM pole position today at Norisring. He lapped the circuit in 48.489, which put him first ahead of Schneider in second and Spengler in third. Mercedes took the top five places with Mattias Ekström best Audi-driver in sixth.

Jamie Green (1st place, Salzgitter AMG Mercedes): “I am very happy with my pole position. I kept on improving throughout the weekend and up to now, the result is perfect. Tomorrow’s race will be really hard. I will try everything to get my first victory in the DTM, although it will not be easy.”

Bernd Schneider (2nd place, Vodafone AMG Mercedes): “The car was good enough for pole today. For tomorrow, I hope for a good start and an accident-free race. The race will be hot and long and many things can happen. It is clear that I want to get further up to the front.”

Bruno Spengler (3rd place, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): “My car has been great since Friday already. Third place for tomorrow’s race is all right, although I am not entirely satisfied with the result. A good start tomorrow, and then anything can happen.”

Mattias Ekström (6th place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportslilne): “Of course, I am disappointed after being only sixth in qualifying without having made any major mistake that I know of. We must see how we can become faster for tomorrow. I think, it will be a different ball game on Sunday.”

Mercedes-Benz-Motorsport director Norbert Haug: “The HWA team has done a great job with all four cars and the competition is enormously close. Being in front with four cars is more than what we had expected. But that is only a stage win for today and doesn’t mean that the result after tomorrow’s race will be like that, too, as we are only two and a half tenths of a second faster than our rivals.

A victory for us would be great, but we don’t feel as the winners yet. I have seldom see the lead changing so many times and the cars being so close together. Max Mosley has watched qualifying today and really liked it. Thus, we get praise from the highest level for what we are doing here.”

Audi-Motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “The Norisring is difficult for us and remains so. We can’t be satisfied with the qualifying result. The drivers are reporting a mix of under- and oversteer, which made it impossible to get all three sectors right and do a perfect lap. This doesn’t mean that we won’t try everything again. We will try to be as good as possible. I am hoping for a significantly better result than in qualifying, a podium finish would be nice.”