Audi misses its entry

While Audi seemed to dominate this first meeting of the DTM At the start of the weekend, qualifying and then the race provided a scathing denial. At Hockenheim, this Sunday, the first Audi A4 is that of Mike Rockenfeller, fifth, while Mercedes made a very good start with a quadruplet. For the boss of Audi Motorsport, the tire sector was the weak point of the firm with the rings.

« It's a hard blow for us today, recognizes Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. We did not have the tires to work and to prevent the damage that was going to occur. Martin (Tomczyk) did not encounter any problems all weekend but was the first to suffer a puncture during the race. We need to explore this topic further. Otherwise, it was a good race, quite open between the new (2009) and old (2008) cars. I hope we can see as many shows on the other circuits. »

In addition to Martin Tomczyk's puncture, Mattias Ekström was unable to represent Audi worthily at the front. His team having called him too early for his first stop, he had to stop a third time before the end of the race, while he was in the leading group. “ This is a frustrating error, recognizes Dr. Ullrich. But the tires we put on Mattias during the second stop could not have lasted two more laps. We need to fix this in the next race, in Valencia, and do a better job. But we could see today that our cars are fast. »