Miguel Molina clinches grid position three for Audi

Ingolstadt/Budapest, May 31, 2014 – Miguel Molina will start the Hungarian round of the DTM at the Hungaroring near Budapest (starting at 13.15, CEST, live on ‘Das Erste’) as the best Audi driver from position three.

Just like he did two weeks ago at Oschersleben, the Spaniard from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in his Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM showed a compelling performance again in Hungary on setting the fastest time in the morning’s free practice. In the first qualifying segment, the Audi driver only had to go out once and was thus able to save a set of tires for Q3. In the end, ‘Magic’ Molina missed the front row by merely 26 thousandths of a second.

“I believe that’s all we had in our quiver today,” said the Spaniard following the time chase on the 4.381-kilometer Hungaroring. “The BMW were very fast. But we did everything right and have good chances of being in contention for victory tomorrow.”

His team-mate Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM) in the third DTM qualifying session of the year managed the leap into the top eight for the third time – despite a spin in Q1 and a cancelled lap time in the third qualifying segment. The Swiss Nico Müller in the Audi Financial Services Audi RS 5 DTM will start the race alongside the Frenchman from the fourth row. At his third DTM event, the rookie from Audi Sport Team Rosberg made it into the final qualifying segment for the first time.

“Congratulations to Miguel (Molina), who is extremely strong this year and has not been discouraged by the misfortune he suffered in the first two races. This clearly speaks for him,” said Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi Sport. “Adrien (Tambay) has shown another good performance too and our youngster Nico Müller made it into the top eight for the first time. Obviously we’re not happy with the qualifying results though. But the DTM always has surprises in store. We’re going to leave no stone unturned to show a good race to the large number of employees from our plant in Győr who are traveling to the Hungaroring tomorrow.”

Jamie Green, the hero who went unrewarded in the turbulent rain race at Oschersleben two weeks ago, secured grid position ten in the Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM. Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM) and Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM) are sharing the sixth row.

The two drivers from Audi Sport Team Phoenix are facing a major challenge. Leader of the standings Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM) and team-mate Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM), like Molina, made it into Q2 on only one set of tires but had to settle for grid positions 13 and 15 – on a track on which overtaking is regarded as being particularly difficult.

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “Miguel (Molina) managed another strong qualifying performance. He’s got good chances of clinching a podium finish tomorrow – perhaps even his first victory in the DTM. We’re going to watch the race from the test day at Le Mans and naturally keep our fingers crossed for him. Of course we’re going to do that for the other Audi drivers too, who are going to try and make up ground in the race.”

Dieter Gass (Head of DTM): “Surely we’d have wished for a better result here. In the past, we often managed to have our cars very close together. We weren’t able to make this happen in this form here so we’ve only got one car on the first two rows of the grid and three in the top eight. We’ve got to work on that in order to achieve one of our great strengths again – a well-balanced line-up.”

Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 3): “Obviously it’s good to be in a position at the very front. I do believe though that today this was all we had in our quiver. Today, the BMW were very fast. We did everything right and have good chances of being in contention for victory tomorrow.”

Nico Müller (Audi Financial Services RS 5 DTM, grid position 8): “Qualifying was positive. After free practice, Q3 was our aim – and we achieved that. I’m happy to be the third-best Audi driver. The entire team did a good job and the car will no doubt be optimal for the long run. I’m hoping for a good race now and to be advancing a bit more.”

Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 7): “In free practice, my car was difficult to drive. Afterwards, we made some major changes and I think they paid off. Grid position seven is a good starting base for the race.”

Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 10): “I think I did a pretty good job, drove sensibly and made no major mistakes. Tenth place is close to Q3, we’re heading in the right direction. But there’s still some more work to do.”

Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 11): “Eleventh place in qualifying is nothing to write home about. You seldom win a race from eleventh place. I’m a bit disappointed about the result.”

Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 12): “It was a difficult qualifying session. We weren’t particularly fast and I had a few problems, especially in Q1. But we’re going to battle in the race! With a good start you can make up a lot of ground here. I believe I’ve got a good car for the race and then anything’s possible.”

Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 13): “Qualifying was disappointing for me. I changed my set-up after the last race but that didn’t work out. My car was difficult to drive. In the race tomorrow, we’ve got to cope with that and make the best of it.”

Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM, grid position 15): “A disappointing qualifying session. Despite the fact that we had a few problems this morning I was optimistic. In Q1, we even saved a set of tires because the performance on lap one was okay. But there was no further improvement in Q2 and, to top it off, my fastest lap was cancelled. That would have amounted to two more places. But we’re much too far away from the front runners anyhow.”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “Congratulations to Miguel (Molina), as the best Audi driver he came close to the BMW cars but they couldn’t be beaten today. We’ve got to develop a good strategy for the race and are hoping for a good pace on option tires in order to try and take a podium at the end of the weekend.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “A pretty sobering qualifying result. I wouldn’t have thought that that’s where we’d end up. The time gaps to the front runners are particularly large. Now we’ve got to take a close look at why that was the case and how we can get closer. Obviously, we’re going to try and make the best of this situation – but especially here that’ll be very difficult. We’re going to try and get both cars to finish in the points but we’ve simply got to remain realistic too.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “It was a decent day for us. We’ve got both cars in the top ten and are the third- and fourth-best Audi cars. Our ‘little one’ (Nico Müller) did a really good job of making it into Q3 right in the third race – I’m pleased with that.”

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