OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Hockenheim, Germany, Oct 25, 2008
Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) will start Sunday�s 11th and final round of the 2008 DTM at Hockenheim second on the grid on the front row. With a time of 1m32.284; he was four hundredths of a second behind the pole position time of Mattias Ekstr�m (Audi); however, Paul was more than two tenths faster than his title rival Timo Scheider (Audi) who qualified third.
All four 2008 C-Class cars were among the top six: Jamie Green (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) ended up fourth with a 1m32.615 ahead of Bernd Schneider (Genuine Parts AMG Mercedes C-Class/1m32.680) who will start his final DTM race, his 227th for Mercedes-Benz, fifth on the grid. Bernd missed the second row by 65 thousandths, Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class) was sixth fastest with a 1m32.769.
Qualifying, part 1: The first qualifying was red-flagged after about seven of 15 minutes following an accident of Markus Winkelhock (Audi); at this time, only six of 19 drivers had completed a timed lap. According to the rules, all drivers moved up to the second part which was extended by almost eight minutes which remained from Q1.
Qualifying, part 2: Di Resta was fastest with a 1m32.882; 79 thousandths of a second ahead of title rival Scheider. Gary Paffett (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) was 12th with a 1m33.742; Maro Engel (JungeSterne AMG Mercedes C-Class/1m33.936), Mathias Lauda (Pixum AMG Mercedes C-Class/1m34.459), Ralf Schumacher (Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class/1m34.499) and Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class/1m34.665) ended up 14th to 17th respectively.
Comments
Paul Di Resta (2008 AMG Mercedes C-Class), second (1m32.284): �I am really close to the pole and missed it only by a small margin. However, I am ahead of Timo � our team did a great job and I thank everybody for their efforts. It will be a long and tough race, but first of all I will concentrate on the first corner and on staying ahead of Timo. I don�t feel any pressure � tomorrow everything is possible.�
Jamie Green (2008 Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class), fourth (1m32.615): �The second row is ok and a good basis for the race. Qualifying went well, but I didn�t manage to pull three perfect sectors together.�
Bernd Schneider (2008 Genuine Parts AMG Mercedes C-Class), fifth (1m32.680): �A good qualifying; my C-Class was perfect. With my final set of tyres I pushed a little too hard at the Sachs corner. A better grid position was possible; however, Paul was just too fast today.�
Bruno Spengler (2008 Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class), sixth (1m32.769): �The car was great, but I struggled at the first sector to find a good rhythm. At least, I�m on the third row.�
Gary Paffett (2007 stern AMG Mercedes C-Class), 12th (1m33.742): �I made a few minor mistakes and therefore I was not able to qualify further up the grid.�
Maro Engel (2007 JungeSterne AMG Mercedes C-Class), 14th (1m33.936): �14th position is not too bad � maybe I can score my first DTM points tomorrow.�
Mathias Lauda (2007 Pixum AMG Mercedes C-Class), 15th (1m34.459): �I am quite satisfied because we improved by about one second after this morning�s free practice.�
Ralf Schumacher (2007 Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class), 16th (1m34.499): �Unfortunately, I damaged my front splitter during the first part of qualifying before the red flag came out. Afterwards I was not able to do better. I look forward to a hopefully exciting race and keep my fingers crossed for Paul.�
Susie Stoddart (2007 TV-Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class), 17th (1m34.665): �I am disappointed, because my car was not as good as I had expected. We will now analyse the data and try to improve for tomorrow.�
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: �An exciting qualifying with a downright solid team performance by ourselves. Paul will start second on the grid; his lap lasted four hundredths of a second longer than the polesetter�s one; in the first and last sectors Paul was fastest and less than seven hundredths slower in the middle sector. All our four 2008 C-Class cars will start from the first three rows tomorrow. I thank the HWA team led by Gerhard Ungar and Hans-J�rgen Mattheis for their efforts and the first step into the right direction. I hope for a fair and tough race tomorrow, in which both title contenders will fight against each other for the championship.
�Tomorrow, the DTM will be sold out for the first time in Hockenheim and thus will have a new record crowd. I thank the organizers of the ITR and the Hockenheimring for this great job which made this excellent event possible.�
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