As if victory last time out at Oschersleben and a handy championship lead were on their own not enough, Timo Scheider has gone another step towards stamping his authority firmly on the DTM in 2008 – by storming to his third successive pole position on the series' first foreign trip of the campaign in Mugello.
The young German – who prior to this year had never stood atop the podium in the pan-European tin-top series in seven full seasons in the category, despite taking a brace of pole positions – has been promoted to the factory Audi squad for 2008, and he is certainly making the most of it. On a beautiful Italian day, the 29-year-old blew rivals Jamie Green, Tom Kristensen, Mattias Ekström, Paul di Resta, Bruno Spengler and Bernd Schneider comfortably out of the water, and now he is looking to make it two wins out of two as well.
“This is just unbelievable – being on pole position for the third time in a row is something I just didn't expect,” a visibly overwhelmed Scheider enthused, proof positive of the fact that all good things really do come in threes. “Actually, my goal was a place on the first two rows. That it was enough for pole is just great. The team has given me a perfect car that allowed me to make it into first place on the grid; now it is up to me to turn this result into a race win.”
Green, Kristensen, defending champion Ekström, di Resta, Spengler and Schneider were all blanketed by less then two tenths of a second at the close of a fraught and thrilling qualifying session, with the latter duo even setting identical lap times to each other in sixth and seventh – though all were more than three tenths away from Scheider's stunning last-gasp effort.
“I am very happy with my performance in qualifying,” stated Green. “I set the right time at the right time. Compared to the first two qualifyings, we have improved significantly and for Sunday, we are in a good position.”
![Timo Scheider - Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline [pic credit: DTM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/356221.jpg)
