Scheider surprised by margin of pole
Timo Scheider says he was surprised by his performance in qualifying at Mugello on Saturday, as he secured his third DTM pole position in a row
The Audi driver beat Jamie Green's Mercedes to pole by more than three tenths of a second, while behind him the rest of the frontrunners were very close.
Scheider put his success down to a slow outlap, which saved his tyres around the long circuit.
"It was really surprising, the lap was unbelievable," he told autosport.com. "I don't know why the performance step was suddenly there.
"I felt huge grip straight out of the pits, so I went really slow on my outlap. Usually the second lap is the best, so we push on the outlap, but I waited until the second-to-last corner to start pushing."
The German also believes that he can carry his performance into Sunday's race, despite the fact that the 2008 Audis are 20 kilograms heavier than their Mercedes counterparts this weekend.
"This result is nice because of the ballast," he added. "I was thinking it was only possible to be on the second or third row, so this surprised me.
"We saw on Friday that we could do some quite good long runs, so I'm not scared about the race. The package is perfect.
"We have been solid all weekend, but of course we are heavier, so we will have to be a bit careful with our tyres. But I am not worried about that."
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