Audi Press Release
- Jamie Green clinches grid position three for DTM race in Nuremberg
- Best qualifying for Audi at the Norisring since 2009
- Four Audi RS 5 DTM cars on the first five rows
Four times in succession, the best Audi driver started on the 2.3-kilometer city street circuit between the ‘Dutzendteich’ and the soccer stadium from position four. With a strong qualifying performance Jamie Green managed to improve position by position on Saturday and to ultimately advance into the top three. In the end, the Audi driver was only 19 thousandths of a second short of making it onto the front row of the grid.
“I’m very pleased with grid position three,” said Green, who has won the DTM race in Nuremberg an amazing four times, which has earned him the nickname ‘Mister Norisring.’ “I’d really like to thank my guys at Audi Sport Team Rosberg. We’re heading in the right direction. The time gaps were extremely small again. My car is good. I think we’ve got a good chance tomorrow – no matter what the weather’s like.”
The battle for the best grid positions was even fiercer this year than in the years before. In the first segment of the three-part qualifying session the entire DTM field was within 0.430 seconds. And at the end of Q3, the fastest six were within 0.150 seconds.
“This was a typical Norisring qualifying with extremely close time gaps and an incredibly strong Jamie Green,” said Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi Sport. He’s nicknamed ‘Mister Norisring’ with good reason. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and that’s when Jamie is always particularly strong. With four Audi RS 5 DTM cars on the first five rows we’ve got a starting base for the race that, on the whole, isn’t too bad. Grid position three is our best qualifying result at the Norisring in five years. We’re going to continue to leave no stone unturned to finally end Mercedes’ string of victories here in Nuremberg.”
The second-best Audi driver in qualifying was Mattias Ekström in the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in position seven. His team-mate Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM) and Nico Müller (Audi Financial Services Audi RS 5 DTM) will be sharing the fifth row on the grid. The young Swiss is driving on the Norisring for the first time this weekend and in qualifying was the best of this year’s four DTM rookies.
Title defender Mike Rockenfeller in the Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Phoenix will start the race from grid position twelve. Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM), most recently the best Audi driver in qualifying twice in succession, will start from position 18.
Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM) and Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM) barely missed Q2 and will be starting the 83-lap race that begins on Sunday at 13.30 CEST (live broadcast on ‘Das Erste’ starting at 13.15) from positions 20 and 21.
Before the start of the DTM race, at 12.35, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro that was victorious in the Le Mans 24 Hours (with Marcel Fässler at the wheel) and the Audi R8 LMS ultra that won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring (with René Rast) will be doing some ‘laps of honor’ on the Norisring. Sports car driver Lucas di Grassi is driving an Audi RS 5 DTM race taxi for the first time this weekend.
Photo credit: Audi Media
