Lausitz: Audi Friday practice report

Audi with new A4 DTM running in front again

Ingolstadt/Klettwitz -- On Friday, the test day of the fourth DTM round, the new Audi A4 DTM remained unbeaten yet again. With 1m 19.688s, Timo Scheider set the day's best time at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Exactly the same time was achieved by Mercedes driver Bernd Schneider in second place.

Once more, Audi was the measure of all things: despite its weight handicap of ten kilograms versus Mercedes -- due to the two overall victories clinched at the beginning of the season -- Audi set Friday's best time with the 2008-spec A4 DTM.

In the morning, Martin Tomczyk had driven a lap around the 3.478-kilometre circuit in the Lausitz region with a best time of 1m 20.179s. His Audi team-mate Tom Kristensen followed with a gap of merely 38 thousandths of a second in second place. In the afternoon, the lap times clearly improved once more: Timo Scheider, as the best driver of the day, was as much as half a second faster than the best driver in the morning.

"Being the quickest again is great, but not really important on Friday," said a pleased Timo Scheider. "What counted was how our car performed over the whole distance. We drew our conclusions from that. I think we weren't bad at all. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep up a consistent rhythm because I had to reduce my speed a bit due to the other cars on the track. Now, we're going to think about qualifying."

With the 2007-spec cars, Audi dominated as well: Markus Winkelhock in the Audi A4 DTM in ninth place was 0.270 seconds quicker than his immediate rival Gary Paffett in the Mercedes. A remarkable time was set by Christijan Albers as well: the Dutchman in the 2006-spec Audi A4 DTM was clocked at 1m 20.409s, setting the eleventh-best time in the field of 19 contenders.

"It's definitely unusual to see two cars at the very front setting an absolutely identical time," said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. "We prepared for the race with our cars and covered long distances -- as did our competitors. The top ten are within six tenths. I'm sure the fans will see a very close qualifying tomorrow."

The free practice on Saturday morning will be broadcast live on the Internet at www.dtm.tv; the qualifying on "Das Erste" (ARD) starting at 1:30 p.m. (local time).

-credit: audi