Mattias Ekström gives Audi the first DTM pole of 2012

By Tarek Ramchani

The 2012 DTM season has started at Hockenheim this weekend. Audi immediately did a great job with a stunning pole position for Mattias Ekström and a strong fourth place for Edoardo Mortara.

A very close and fought qualifying session with great battles between the drivers from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz drivers. The qualifying format has changed this year now with four sessions. Only the top four drivers are allowed to compete in the final "Q4", the fourth qualifying session. Two Audi drivers made it to this weekend’s Q4. Edoardo Mortara was the first to do his "one shot" lap. The Audi Sport Team Rsoberg driver made a mistake and that gave him the fourth place on the grid for tomorrow's race. Later it was the turn of Mattias Ekström, the Swede completed a perfect lap of 1:34.680. Eki faced great competition from AMG's Jamie Green. The British driver did a great lap, but wasn't able to prevent the Swedish ace from taking the first pole position of the new season. Audi has placed four of its drivers in the top ten. Mike Rockenfeller from Audi Sport Team Phoenix qualified in a good fifth. Timo Scheider the two times DTM champion was eighth. The other Audi drivers were twelfth with Adrian Tambay, fourteenth with Filipe Albuquerque, seventeenth with Miguel Molina and twenty-second with Rahel Frey.

Audi has done a great job in qualifying. Ekstrom will start from pole, with both Mortara and Rockenfeller not far behind. Audi has a great chance to take the victory for tomorrow's race

Full qualifying results

Photo Credits: Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Edoardo Mortara - Audi A5 DTM - Audi Sport Team Rosberg

Mike Rockenfeller - Audi A5 DTM - Audi Sport Team Phoenix

Mattias Ekström Blog: Back to Work

By Mattias Ekström

With the 2012 season about to get under way, the DTM teams are in Hockenheim putting the final touches to their new cars. Here's Mattias Ekström with his first blog of 2012 to tell you how it's going…

Hi everybody,

Long time, no blog. Racing drivers don’t exactly hibernate in the off-season but there really hasn't been that much to talk about. I’ve trained, I’ve tested the new car, I’ve been at home a lot and enjoyed family life… It’s been good, but work is calling now.

This week we’ve been at Hockenheim, taking part in the final pre-season test. I did a whole day of media on Monday, followed by driving on Tuesday and Thursday. I think the car is a good one but it’s just a feeling – we won’t know until qualifying begins for the first race here at Hockenheim in a couple of weeks. I’ve been around far too long to be impressed by times in testing. Everybody’s sandbagging like crazy, so you don’t read too much into it. 

The final test isn’t so much about R&D – we’ve done that already. It's about about fine-tuning our set up for the first race. Or, as we’re back-to-back at Hockenheim and then Lausitz, fine-tuning for the first two races. You have to prepare now if you want to have straightforward race weekends. When everything is new, you can’t take it for granted that you’ll just slip back into the groove. We think strategically, act calmly and focus on what we need to do.

It’s going to be a little bit different this year with BMW coming into DTM. It’s nice when you stand in the pitlane and see the Audi, Mercedes and BWM brands on display. The championship got a big boost from BMW coming in: it’s a big event and it’s nice to be part of it.

But with that comes a change in the competition dynamic. From what I’ve seen and felt during testing, things will be different this year. I think everyone’s taken things a little more seriously during the winter. We always were serious but I think you can feel more tension in the air ahead of this season.

My feeling is that it will be the drivers rather than the cars that make the difference this year. You always need the best combination of both because you're not going to win the championship without the best car. But equally you're not going to win without the best driver.

This year I get the feeling that the new cars will be pretty evenly matched, so the guy behind the wheel will make a big difference and the champion will be the driver who is most consistent. I might be wrong, though. We might have all the Audi A5DTMs at the front – and as an Audi driver I’d love that because it would mean we’ve done a really good job. But I really don’t think one brand will dominate in that way.

We’ll find out in a couple of weeks.

Cheerio,

Mattias

More about Mattias Ekström:

Mattias Ekström official website

Mattias Ekström official Facebook

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