Kristensen takes Barcelona pole
Tom Kristensen put in a commanding performance in DTM qualifying at Barcelona to take pole position for Sunday's race
The Audi driver edged Paul di Resta by 0.064 seconds in the four-way pole position shootout, but his best lap came in the previous segment where he blitzed the field to earn himself the best track position for Q4.
Martin Tomczyk took third on the grid in his Audi, while Bruno Spengler had to settle for fourth after his car appeared to suffer a mechanical problem as he completed his lap. The Canadian's C-class sounded rough as he crossed the line, and just a couple of corners later he came to a halt out on track.
Tomczyk's performance could prove crucial in the championship, as he only made it into Q4 at the last moment, knocking out title hopeful Gary Paffett.
Paffett, who was fourth before Tomczyk's final lap, had already driven to the end of the pitlane to queue up for the pole shootout, where he would have been looking to put several cars between himself and his title rivals Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekstrom.
But by being knocked down to fifth, the 2005 champion will instead line up with the Audi pair directly behind him on the grid in sixth and seventh places.
Alexandre Premat was the only driver of a 2008-spec car to make Q3, narrowly beating his Phoenix Audi team-mate Oliver Jarvis to that honour.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Tom Kristensen Audi 1m06.825s 2. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m06.889s 3. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m07.043s 4. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m07.182s 5. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m06.806s 6. Timo Scheider Audi 1m06.839s 7. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m07.015s 8. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m07.143s 9. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m07.311s 10. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m07.325s 11. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m07.332s 12. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m07.391s 13. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m07.471s 14. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m07.706s 15. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1m07.915s 16. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m07.988s 17. Katherine Legge Audi 1m08.234s 18. Johannes Seidlitz Audi 1m08.806s 19. Tomas Kostka Audi 1m08.849s 20. Christian Bakkerud Audi 1m09.129s
Scheider fastest in Barcelona practice
Scheider wins as Audi dominates
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