Abt-Audi-driver Ekström claims pole position in successful night premiere

Fans and drivers were equally excited -- the first Super-Pole
qualifying at night in the history of the DTM was a huge success. Flying
sparks, glowing brake discs and flames coming out of the exhaust pipes,
spectators at the Super-Pole for the seventh round of the DTM at the
Nürburgring got plenty to see. 

The fastest driver and therefore on the
first grid position today was Mattias Ekström. The Abt-Audi-driver lapped
the 3.629 kilometres long track in 1.25.095 minutes. This made the Swede
0.099 seconds faster than his team-mate, DTM-champion Laurent Aiello, who
will also be starting from the front row of the grid. Christijan Albers
(Mercedes-Benz) in third place was separated by only twelve hundredths of
a second from Martin Tomczyk (Abt-Audi) in fourth and Peter Dumbreck
(Opel) in fifth position.

"With their single lap qualifying at night, the DTM has come up
with another great thing. I am happy that it is me who is the fastest
driver," beamed Mattias Ekström. "Now you are looking,
Norbert" was the message on a sign shown by Abt-Audi team principal
Hans-Jürgen Abt to Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug, as
Ekström had claimed pole position. 

The Mercedes motorsport boss was happy
with youngster Christijan Albers, who will be starting from third place
as the best-placed driver of an AMG-Mercedes CLK. Team-mate and points
leader Bernd Schneider is in sixth place after a slight error on his
flying lap.

Next to Peter Dumbreck, fellow Opel-driver Alain Menu is starting from
seventh place and Manuel Reuter from ninth. "After warm-up was
already excellent for me with the fastest time, I was optimistic going
into the Super-Pole," Dumbreck said. "Unfortunately, I
couldn't do a second lap just as perfectly. But fifth place is a
good position to start from."

The many spectators can look forward to an exciting seventh DTM-round
with the drivers of Abt-Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Opel. In
yesterday's qualifying, the four fastest drivers were within two
tenths of a second, the first twelve being separated by one second only.

-dtm-


---
http://www.motorsport.com -- your source for motorsport news on the Internet
--- Synchronet 3.10L-Win32 NewsLink 1.43
--- SBBSecho 2.00-Win32