Audi boss lauds Winkelhock

The German driver was drafted in as a replacement for Tom Kristensen ahead of the last race at Lausitz, and this weekend he has shown a big improvement compared to his first outing in the Audi A4.

Winkelhock ran near the back during his first race weekend, but he has qualified ninth on the grid for Sunday's race in Britain.

"I'm very happy for Markus, this was really good," said Ullrich. "He has improved his speed well this weekend."

Winkelhock has had to jump between his testing duties for the Spyker Formula One team and his temporary drive in the DTM, and Ullrich admitted that he understood how difficult the circumstances are for the 26-year-old.

"The way he has had to jump into this drive is like being thrown into cold water," he said.

"It is very difficult for him.

"It is even harder for him because this track is new to him, but I think we will see a good performance during the race."

The Audi boss was not pleased with all of his drivers though, as Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr were unable to match the performance of Alexandre Premat and Christian Abt in their one-year-old cars.

Premat and Abt qualified in the top five, while Luhr and Rockenfeller failed to make the top 10.

"I will have to speak to Lucas and Mike about why they were unable to repeat their performance from this morning's practice," said Ullrich. "We know from last year that the track changes a lot here though with the weather, so it can be difficult."