Scheider snatches late pole at Mugello
Timo Scheider snatched pole position in the dying seconds of DTM qualifying at Mugello, blitzing the field after a session that had been very tight up to that point
Prior to the championship leader's final lap, the top four runners were covered by less than one tenth of a second, but Scheider then stunned his rivals by going three tenths of a second quicker than Jamie Green.
Scheider has now taken a hat-trick of pole positions, while Audis have now taken pole for eight consecutive races.
Green became the first driver to put a Mercedes on the front row this season with his best lap, while Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekstrom complete the second row.
Paul di Resta ended up fifth just ahead of Bruno Spengler, who set the same time as Bernd Schneider in seventh.
Markus Winkelhock was the only driver of an older car to get through to the final segment of qualifying, but the Audi driver had to settle for eighth in the end.
Three more 2007 Audis will line up behind him on the grid, with Alexandre Premat, Mike Rockenfeller and Oliver Jarvis all missing the cut in the second session. All three, however, outperformed the 2008 Audi of Martin Tomczyk, who was one of several drivers to run slightly off track on his final lap.
Behind the group of Audis, Ralf Schumacher was the highest-placed driver of a one-year-old Mercedes in 13th, just ahead of his Mucke Motorsport teammate Maro Engel. Both outqualified former champion Gary Paffett, who was eliminated in the first segment of qualifying after going off on his final flying lap.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Timo Scheider Audi 1:43.079 2. Jamie Green Mercedes 1:43.401 +0.322 3. Tom Kristensen Audi 1:43.420 +0.341 4. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1:43.472 +0.393 5. Paul Di Resta Mercedes 1:43.487 +0.408 6. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1:43.579 +0.500 7. Bernd Schneider Mercedes 1:43.579 +0.500 8. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1:44.025 +0.946 9. Alexandre Premat Audi 1:43.927 +0.848 10. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1:43.997 +0.918 11. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1:44.031 +0.952 12. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1:44.154 +1.075 13. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1:44.735 +1.656 14. Maro Engel Mercedes 1:45.357 +2.278 15. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1:44.914 +1.835 16. Christijan Albers Audi 1:44.986 +1.907 17. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1:45.644 +2.565 18. Katherine Legge Audi 1:46.086 +3.007 19. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1:46.258 +3.179
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments