Bruno Spengler was the highest-placed of the three-pointed star's nine drivers at the end of the session, albeit almost four tenths of a second shy of Scheider's quickest effort. The 2007 championship runner-up, however, insisted Mercedes should not be written off in the race.
“[It was] a tough fight,” the Canadian admitted. “This time, it wasn't enough for pole position. Of course, I am a little bit disappointed. I had a problem with oversteer in the first sector, but with my best time in the second sector I made it up.
“The race weekend isn't over yet, though, and in the race victory is at stake. We should be in good shape, I am certain we will have a very strong car and I want to fight for victory.”
Further down the grid,
Ralf Schumacher ultimately missed out on making it through into Q2 by the narrowest margin of just 88 thousandths of a second on his maiden series appearance, though the German stressed he was not unhappy with his performance and had ‘learned a lot'. The
Formula 1 refugee will begin the 37-lap race from 15th position, one spot behind DTM returnee Christijan Albers, the Dutch star an impressive 14th on his comeback in his two-year-old Audi Futurecom-TME machine.
“So far we've got every reason to be satisfied,” summarised Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, “because we showed a very strong team performance. Obviously, the new Audi A4 DTM functions very well.
“Clinching pole the first time out – that's definitely a superb accomplishment. What's more, we've shown a solid team performance. I'm particularly happy for Timo, who has been very strong all weekend and managed to translate this strength into pole position, but all the others showed a really good performance as well
![Timo Scheider - Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline [pic credit: DTM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/349775.jpg)
