Audi: Barcelona changes to help rivals

Martin Tomczyk scored his maiden DTM victory at the Spanish track in 2006 as Audi's filled three of the top four positions, with only eventual champion Bernd Schneider preventing them from locking out the podium places.

However, Audi believe that the change to the penultimate corner on the circuit, where a chicane has replaced the fast right-hander, will play into the hands of Mercedes.

"We've lost a small advantage we had over Mercedes because of the new chicane," said Timo Scheider, who has given away podium finishes to Mattias Ekstrom in the last two races.

"Our strengths lie in the medium and high-speed corners, but Audi had a good set-up there last year and for this reason I'm looking forward to the race."

Audi's head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich added that the change will make Audi's bid to wrap up this year's title early even more difficult.

"The circuit last season suited our cars extremely well, but since then the circuit layout has been changed because of the wishes of Formula One," he said.

"Now, in front of the fast final corner which suited our cars, there is a chicane. If we want to win the championship we'll also have to be competitive on this version."