Miguel Molina clinches grid position three for Audi
Spaniard from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline shines again.
Photo by: XPB Images
Ingolstadt/Budapest, May 31, 2014 Miguel Molina will start the Hungarian round of the DTM at the Hungaroring near Budapest (starting at 13.15, CEST, live on Das Erste) as the best Audi driver from position three.
Just like he did two weeks ago at Oschersleben, the Spaniard from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in his Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM showed a compelling performance again in Hungary on setting the fastest time in the mornings free practice. In the first qualifying segment, the Audi driver only had to go out once and was thus able to save a set of tires for Q3. In the end, Magic Molina missed the front row by merely 26 thousandths of a second.
I believe thats all we had in our quiver today, said the Spaniard following the time chase on the 4.381-kilometer Hungaroring. The BMW were very fast. But we did everything right and have good chances of being in contention for victory tomorrow.
His team-mate Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM) in the third DTM qualifying session of the year managed the leap into the top eight for the third time despite a spin in Q1 and a cancelled lap time in the third qualifying segment. The Swiss Nico Müller in the Audi Financial Services Audi RS 5 DTM will start the race alongside the Frenchman from the fourth row. At his third DTM event, the rookie from Audi Sport Team Rosberg made it into the final qualifying segment for the first time.Congratulations to Miguel (Molina), who is extremely strong this year and has not been discouraged by the misfortune he suffered in the first two races. This clearly speaks for him, said Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi Sport. Adrien (Tambay) has shown another good performance too and our youngster Nico Müller made it into the top eight for the first time. Obviously were not happy with the qualifying results though. But the DTM always has surprises in store. Were going to leave no stone unturned to show a good race to the large number of employees from our plant in Győr who are traveling to the Hungaroring tomorrow.
Jamie Green, the hero who went unrewarded in the turbulent rain race at Oschersleben two weeks ago, secured grid position ten in the Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM. Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM) and Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM) are sharing the sixth row.
The two drivers from Audi Sport Team Phoenix are facing a major challenge. Leader of the standings Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM) and team-mate Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM), like Molina, made it into Q2 on only one set of tires but had to settle for grid positions 13 and 15 on a track on which overtaking is regarded as being particularly difficult.
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): Miguel (Molina) managed another strong qualifying performance. Hes got good chances of clinching a podium finish tomorrow perhaps even his first victory in the DTM. Were going to watch the race from the test day at Le Mans and naturally keep our fingers crossed for him. Of course were going to do that for the other Audi drivers too, who are going to try and make up ground in the race.
Dieter Gass (Head of DTM): Surely wed have wished for a better result here. In the past, we often managed to have our cars very close together. We werent able to make this happen in this form here so weve only got one car on the first two rows of the grid and three in the top eight. Weve got to work on that in order to achieve one of our great strengths again a well-balanced line-up.
Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 3): Obviously its good to be in a position at the very front. I do believe though that today this was all we had in our quiver. Today, the BMW were very fast. We did everything right and have good chances of being in contention for victory tomorrow.
Nico Müller (Audi Financial Services RS 5 DTM, grid position 8): Qualifying was positive. After free practice, Q3 was our aim and we achieved that. Im happy to be the third-best Audi driver. The entire team did a good job and the car will no doubt be optimal for the long run. Im hoping for a good race now and to be advancing a bit more.
Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 7): In free practice, my car was difficult to drive. Afterwards, we made some major changes and I think they paid off. Grid position seven is a good starting base for the race.
Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 10): I think I did a pretty good job, drove sensibly and made no major mistakes. Tenth place is close to Q3, were heading in the right direction. But theres still some more work to do.
Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 11): Eleventh place in qualifying is nothing to write home about. You seldom win a race from eleventh place. Im a bit disappointed about the result.
Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 12): It was a difficult qualifying session. We werent particularly fast and I had a few problems, especially in Q1. But were going to battle in the race! With a good start you can make up a lot of ground here. I believe Ive got a good car for the race and then anythings possible.
Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 13): Qualifying was disappointing for me. I changed my set-up after the last race but that didnt work out. My car was difficult to drive. In the race tomorrow, weve got to cope with that and make the best of it.
Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 15): A disappointing qualifying session. Despite the fact that we had a few problems this morning I was optimistic. In Q1, we even saved a set of tires because the performance on lap one was okay. But there was no further improvement in Q2 and, to top it off, my fastest lap was cancelled. That would have amounted to two more places. But were much too far away from the front runners anyhow.
Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): Congratulations to Miguel (Molina), as the best Audi driver he came close to the BMW cars but they couldnt be beaten today. Weve got to develop a good strategy for the race and are hoping for a good pace on option tires in order to try and take a podium at the end of the weekend.
Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): A pretty sobering qualifying result. I wouldnt have thought that thats where wed end up. The time gaps to the front runners are particularly large. Now weve got to take a close look at why that was the case and how we can get closer. Obviously, were going to try and make the best of this situation but especially here thatll be very difficult. Were going to try and get both cars to finish in the points but weve simply got to remain realistic too.
Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): It was a decent day for us. Weve got both cars in the top ten and are the third- and fourth-best Audi cars. Our little one (Nico Müller) did a really good job of making it into Q3 right in the third race Im pleased with that.
Audi
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