“Qualifying was very exciting and surely entertaining for the spectators,” mused Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug. “We have four cars in the top seven – that is a very strong team performance. Congratulations to Timo Scheider for pole position. Today, we were in the same league as Audi, but not with him. That was a great performance; the lap time impressed me.
“The times of the following six cars are remarkably close, especially with this track being so long. Now we have to wait [to see] what tomorrow's race will bring. It will not be easy. We have made some very big steps already – many thanks to the team for that – however we are still in the process of catching up. The long runs were promising and we have shown that we are still there. Victory tomorrow would be nice, but we could very well live with a podium finish too.”
To see the qualifying times in full,
click here