Audi will start the third round of the 2013 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with 3 cars inside the top six and Dieter Gass believes this is a good starting base.
“I’ve got mixed emotions: We were going to try and present ourselves as a team further at the front more cohesively,” explains Audi’s Head of DTM.
“With three Audi cars on the first three rows, we managed to do so. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite make it onto the front row. But it’s very tight at the front. I think we’ve still got a good starting base.”
Leading Audi on the grid is the Audi Sport Team Rosberg car of 2012 Spielberg winner Edoarto Mortara and Team Director Arno Zensen is pleased with the qualifying result for the team.
“I’m very happy,” said Zensen. “Third and sixth place are a superb team performance. ‘Well done’ to Edo (Mortara), Filipe (Albuquerque) and the whole team. We really needed this after Brands Hatch. I’m optimistic for the race.”
Leading the way for Team Rosberg is former Spielberg race winner Edoarto Mortara in third position on the grid. The 2012 race winner is the only Audi driver inside the top 4 and the Italian racer admits that he is pleased with how qualifying went.
“It was a good qualifying session,” he said. “I squeezed everything out of the car. The first lap in Q1 wasn’t brilliant. Afterward, I pushed one hundred percent and made no mistakes.
“That’s why I’m very pleased. Unfortunately, there’s a gap to Bruno (Spengler) and the two BMW cars. But we’re going to continue to go all out in order to move to the very front.”
Lining up fifth is the Audi Sport Team Abt car of Timo Scheider. The 34 year old German racer admits that his qualifying result isn’t so bad after qualifying issues.
“Grid position five isn’t a bad result,” he admits. “I was struggling a bit with my car, especially in the semi-fast and fast sections. Considering that, I’m pretty happy to have managed getting it right somehow in the end and being in the top five. We were lacking only three hundredths of a second for Q4.”
Joining Mortara inside the top six is fellow Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver Felipe Albuquerque. The Portuguese racer lines up on the third row of the grid having just missed out on moving into the final stage of qualifying.
“That was a very nice qualifying session,” the 27 year old said. “My car was perfect and Team Rosberg did a very good job. Maybe I started a bit too early in Q3 but I’m pleased with sixth place. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.”