Mattias Ekström came through 50º heat on the track in Valencia to claim the 15th pole of his DTM career ahead of Sunday’s race.
The Swede claimed the best starting grid position with his Audi A4 DTM with a lap time of 1:29.565 minutes. Lining up alongside him in P2 will be Mercedes’ Bruno Spengler with Oliver Jarvis (Audi) and Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) filling the second row.
“I am really happy. I am feeling very good in the car, even though it is very hot. For the race, we have to keep our fingers crossed that the tyres will make it through the distance,” said Ekström.
"It’s a nice feeling to be on pole. It’s also a sort of reward for the mechanics and the team after such a good performance on their part. The driver can only deliver what’s in the car.
“Now we’ve got to prepare for the race with even more vigorous work. We’ve got to solve all the problems and drive a flawless race."
'We have to keep our fingers crossed that the tyres will make it through the distance' – Mattias Ekström
Martin Tomczyk starts ninth in the Red Bull Cola car alongside reigning champion Timo Schneider.
"This was not satisfactory. We slightly misjudged the grip conditions on the track,” said Tomczyk. “The track changed a lot over the weekend. We didn’t reach the maximum because the track had more potential. So I lost time."
But David Coulthard was more content with P14. “I am still happy with my sector times which were more or less the same as the ones of Jamie (Green) and Ralf (Schumacher) – quite reasonable for my second DTM qualifying.
“Tomorrow I want to finish and if I can achieve a good result, it will be even better.”
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