Tough qualifying for Mercedes drivers

All of the Mercedes-Benz drivers have a lot of work to do in Sunday’s DTM race at Oschersleben. The highest Mercedes driver in qualifying was Bruno Spengler, managing sixth place on the grid.

With all of the 2009 specification C-Class cars carrying 20kg success ballast as a result of their dominant start to the season, the leading Mercedes driver pin pointed the additional weight as a reason for the lowly qualifying positions.

“Sixth is not the optimum grid position; however, considering our 20-kilo weight handicap it is still OK”, said Spengler, but also went on to say that he would go into the race aiming to “make the best out of it”.

Ralf Schumacher also referred to the ballast, he said that “20-kilo weight handicap is really significant here”. In addition to the weight, Schumacher also openly admitted that he was not performing well, “I was not good enough”, he stated.

Salzgitter AMG driver Gary Paffett qualified 12th for the race. He enjoyed good pace in the first round of qualifying, but couldn’t improve enough in the second session. At Oschersleben in 2007 Paffett became the first ever driver in the DTM, to win a race in a year-old car, and although a race win is unlikely this weekend, he remains positive, “I am optimistic – tomorrow I want to end up in the points”.

Maro Engel believed he could have made it into the third round of qualifying, had he not made a small mistake on his fastest lap in the second round, “The car ran really well; however, I made a mistake under braking at turn one of my final lap”.

Despite the obvious weight disadvantage for the weekend, the Mercedes-Benz drivers could still benefit from the forecasted rain intervention tomorrow.