Quotes from the Audi drivers

Despite not having won the race, the Audi team was happy with the result they achieved on the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Timo Scheider finished the race in second and kept the lead in the championship. Mattias Ekström finished in third, ahead of Martin Tomczyk. Here is what the Audi drivers had to say about the race.

Timo Scheider (2nd place):
“A good weekend for Audi. We knew this would be a tough round for us. With my second place and positions three and four for Mattias (Ekström) and Martin (Tomczyk), we can be proud. For my boys and me, of course it’s great to go to the Norisring with a three-point lead in the championship.”

Mattias Ekström (3rd place):
“It really feels good to go home today with third place. I’m only six points behind the leader of the standings when we go to the Norisring six weeks from now. That’s a great starting base. Also, during this weekend at the EuroSpeedway, we managed adapting my Audi A4 DTM to my driving style even better than before. All in all, this lets me enjoy the small summer break in a very relaxed mood.”

Martin Tomczyk (4th place):
“We can be satisfied with the result. My car was very good, my own performance flawless. With a different strategy, I might have been able to keep Mattias behind me.”

Oliver Jarvis (8th place):
“A good race with a fast car. Unfortunately, I got entangled in a starting tussle, which made me lose three, four positions. But thanks to good pit stops I was able to make up ground again. Eighth place is a good result for our team.”

Mike Rockenfeller (9th place):
“Tenth place is the same position I started from. I’d been hoping for more, particularly because I had such a fantastic start and was able to make up a few positions straight away. But my car was simply not good enough today, and I lost places again to Alex and Oliver.”

Christijan Albers (14th place):
“My qualifying was good, but the race, unfortunately, wasn’t. In the first two corners I was brushed and all the front flaps broke off. Actually, the car was no longer drivable after that, but I finished the race anyhow.”

Katherine Legge (15th place):
“At the start I wasn’t able to see the lights and just followed the other cars. Later, I had a nice duel with Susie Stoddart, who did a good job of defending her position until she had to pit. All in all, I’m satisfied with the race because I made another step forwards in my learning curve.”

Tom Kristensen (16th place):
“In the first turn I was put in a sandwich from left and right and turned around in the third corner. During the safety car period, the team performed a very quick repair stop. But the car was simply too heavily damaged to be able to still drive good lap times.”

Markus Winkelhock (retired):
“The Lausitzring is not a good place for me. Last year, my race ended in a tyre stack, and so did this one. In the first turn, someone hit me in the rear, and in the third it happened again. At first, I thought that only one of the wishbones was bent, but then – on the straight/finish at over 200 kph – my tyre blew.”

Alexandre Prémat (disqualified, after finishing in eight):
“Definitely a strong race. I gave everything from start to finish and was able to keep the pace of the 2008-spec cars.”

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Motorsport:
“We can be satisfied with the result. We saw a superb team performance today with strong pit stops, which helped to decide the race. With places two to four, the extension of our lead in the championship and with equal weight as our rivals at the Norisring, this has been a successful weekend for Audi.”