"Super-Pole at night will be mega"

Three drivers of Abt-Audi, three of Opel and four of Mercedes-Benz
qualified for the DTM's first Super-Pole competition at night.
Points leader Bernd Schneider (AMG-Mercedes CLK) was fastest in the 40
minutes' qualifying session at the Nürburgring from
Abt-Audi-drivers Mattias Ekström and Martin Tomczyk. The three were
separated by only seven hundredths of a second. 

Champion Laurent Aiello
was followed by Opel-trio Manuel Reuter, Alain Menu and Peter Dumbreck.
The top ten was completed by Christijan Albers, Jean Alesi und Marcel
Fässler (all Mercedes-Benz). This evening at 22.35 h, these ten drivers
will be start their spectacular battle for the first ten grid positions
for the seventh round of the DTM at the Nürburgring. 

"Driving Super-Pole at night will be mega," Bernd Schneider is convinced.
"Yesterday's free practice in the dark already was great
fun." Right after the nightly Super-Pole, the world championship
boxing match between Markus Beyer and Danny Green will be taking place in
the big tent at the Nürburgring. 

"I am used to driving in the dark. After all, I am from Sweden, and
sometimes, we only have a few hours of daylight," Mattias Ekström
joked. "Only Bernd Schneider was a little bit too fast, but we can
get it done tonight." Team principal Hans-Jürgen Abt was impressed
by the combined event of DTM and boxing. Here at the Nürburgring, we have
created something really new with 'Boxing meets DTM'."

Opel's motorsport director Volker Strycek is convinced: "This
will be an thrilling affair tonight. From the fans, you can hear excited
reactions as well. I am happy that our drivers had their nerves under
control in qualifying, and that we have three cars for this
evening's Super-Pole." Manuel Reuter was very satisfied as
well: "Once again, qualifying was an incredibly close
affair."

"I have never seen so many fans on Saturday at a touring car race
at the Nürburgring, it is just great", Mercedes-Benz motorsport
director Norbert Haug said. "From a sporting point of view, Bernd
Schneider did the job for us. Had it not been for his performance,
we would only be seventh and further down today."

-dtm-


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