Photo: DTM Media

Martin Tomczyk claims Nürburgring pole

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Martin Tomczyk has qualified on pole position for the sixth race of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season at the Nürburgring. Bruno Spengler was again the best placed Mercedes in qualifying as he secured second on the grid.

Tomczyk transferred his pace from the morning practice to the qualifying session, and duly claimed pole position for Sunday’s race.

Having previously won in the DTM at the Nürburgring in 2007, Tomczyk will be looking to use this pole position to continue his return to form in the 2009 season, following a good third place in the previous race at Oschersleben.

Spengler enjoyed a solid qualifying session, and will be looking to build on his good start to the championship. He currently sits 5 points off the leaders in the championship.

Championship protagonists Gary Paffett, Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström enjoyed very different qualifying sessions. Ekström and Scheider took the second row of the grid, but joint championship leader Paffett failed to make it past the first round of qualifying.

The Brit only completed 3 laps, after complaining of an engine misfire, and finished with only the 16th fastest time in the round.

Ralf Schumacher, Susie Stoddart, Tomáš Kostka, Johannes Seidlitz and Christian Bakkerud all failed to make it into the second round of qualifying.

Schumacher was obviously downbeat after going out so early, “We hadn’t got a good balance and it wasn’t possible to drive faster. A very disappointing result”, he stated.

Ekström set the pace in the second round of qualifying, as Audi locked out the top five positions.

Norisring race winner, Jamie Green, failed to make it to the third round of qualifying, along with Mike Rockenfeller, Maro Engel, Alexandre Prémat, Mathias Lauda and Katherine Legge.

The third session saw Tomczyk and Ekström continue their personal battle at the top of the timing screens, and this time Tomczyk came out on top.

Those that failed to make the final round of qualifying were Oliver Jarvis, Paul di Resta, Markus Winkelhock and Tom Kristensen.

Jarvis will start from an excellent 5th place on the grid, and is the highest placed 2008 specification car.

“I wasn’t able to get the pace of Oschersleben”, said Kristensen after the session, but also added that he was optimistic for the race, after successful long runs in the free [practice earlier in the day.

In the past four seasons in the DTM at the Nürburgring, Spengler, Ekström and Tomczyk have all been victorious. All three are placed at the sharp end of the grid, and this should make for a very exciting race.

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