Tom Kristensen (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline / Audi A4 DTM #12)
1st place
“For me, the DTM is the toughest racing series in the world, and this
makes me even happier about today’s victory. I didn’t have a single minute
to relax, because Martin was ’larger than life’ in my rear view mirror
throughout the whole second half of the race. I want to thank Audi and my
pit crew, who have made this exploit possible. It was pretty hot inside the
cockpit. But when you’re fighting for victory, you quickly forget that.“
Martin Tomczyk (Audi Sport Team Abt / Audi A4 DTM #6)
2nd place, + 2.696s.
“My congratulations to Tom on his first victory. Of course I would have loved
to overtake him today as well, but my happiness about the best result in
my DTM career so far is more important than such thoughts. Tom and I
were clocking identical times during the whole 42 laps, so the race had to
be decided in the pit lane. Third place at Estoril, second place here at
Oschersleben – and there are still a few races to go...“
Mattias Ekström (Audi Sport Team Abt / Audi A4 DTM #5)
5th place + 13.242s
“This was was a very tough race, to be sure. I have every reason to be
satisfied with my fifth place and am delighted about the one-two victory of
my team-mates. What happened in the first lap was exactly what I’d
expected. After the scuffle with Schneider, something was bent on my car. I
felt some vibrations, and my A4 was understeering as well. Particularly in
the final laps, the car was very difficult to drive. Still, I believe it was the right
decision to attack immediately.“
Christian Abt (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline / Audi A4 DTM #11)
9th place, + 31.360s
“It’s a pity I came so close to scoring points and then missed. I could have
probably outrun the cars in front of me by one second in each lap, but
overtaking was simply impossible. I didn’t want to force the issue either in
order to – finally – achieve an exploit again.“
Frank Biela (Audi Sport Infineon Team Joest / Audi A4 DTM #45)
13th place, + 56.183s
“I stayed away from the pushing and shoving right after start, where a lot of
dust was kicked up again. I fell back by one place from the starting order,
but for me it was important to finish the race. I think we can learn a lesson
from this in terms of how the car and the tyres are performing over the
whole distance. The second set of tyres was okay, but with the first and
third set, my A4 was oversteering.“
Emanuele Pirro (Audi Sport Infineon Team Joest / Audi A4 DTM #44)
15th place, + 1m 08.730s
“The race was extremely rough. My start was really good, but then I was hit
from behind and fell back to the penultimate place. Then there was an
incident in the pit lane that cost me additional time (The Abt team
relaesed CA from the pit ... just when EP was coming in, CA hit EP on
the left rear wheel and turned me around, luckily no one was hurt)*.
What’s more, there was an extremely large amount of dirt in my cockpit, so
I could hardly see anything. During the second pit stop, there were
problems as well. What we definitely need now is a little luck – finally –
because the car was very good in the race.“
* comments by the editor
Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline)
“My boys can often be heard singing the tune, ’There’s only one Team Abt
Sportsline’. Today, they’ve shown once again what that means: perfect pit
stops, a one-two victory, and all four cars among the top ten. I’m proud of
ourselves having achieved this exploit with and for Audi. ‘Well done’ to both
Tom and Martin – and to Mattias, too, who put on a fantastic fight, now
having locked in his position as a ‘hot’ candidate for the title.“
Ralf Jüttner (Technical Director Audi Sport Infineon Team Joest)
“I’m happy for Audi, but highly disappointed about our result. Basically
speaking, the race was finished for us right after start, once again.
Emanuele had a super start, but was touched by another car right in the
second corner. Then there were incidents during both pit stops that cost
us additional time. Frank drove a respectable race, but starting from 15th
place, he simply had no chance of scoring a better result than he did.“
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport)
“This was a truly fantastic race. Tom and Martin set the pace, proving –
once more – how good the Audi A4 DTM is. Mattias has shown yet again
that he’s capable of achieving a great result even from a less favourable
starting position and has scored valuable points. The whole squad can be
proud of these exploits, and I’m highly satisfied.“
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