Top Qualifying

Top Qualifying ended with a big surprise, when AMG Mercedes pilot Bernd
Schneider, the man with the most additional weight in his car (33 Kg)
conquered pole position, followed by his works mates Jan Magnussen, Kurt
Thiim and Dario Franchitti. The first car without the star on the bonnet
was Manuel Reuter (Opel Calibra) in fifth position.

14 - Bernd Schneider
"My pole position wasn't such a big surprise for me, as I always believe
that there is a possibility to be fastest. But I wouldn't have placed a
bet on that. Not only because of the kilos particularly, but because I
didn't do any qualification preparations in the morning session. And you
never can be sure, that the set-up of your team mate works as well in
your car, as it does in his. So I'm very happy now."

4 - Jan Magnussen
"This was quite a nice lap. I only made a small mistake in the chicane,
but this was no problem. This is a nice track, I really like it."

15 - Dario Franchitti
The young Scotsman disappeared directly after his qualification lap
where he had achieved third position and didn't look very satisfied.
But some minutes later he had calmed down and was very confident again:
"Okay, the lap wasn't perfect, but I'm third and this position gives me
the possibility of good results and even for another victory."

6 - Kurt Thiim
"What a mess. This could have been another pole, but I was too fast
going into Dunlop corner which cost me some tenths of a second. But
still the weekend isn't finished."

9 - Manuel Reuter
"I'm totally satisfied with my car and with the lap, which was faster
than my best one yesterday. I was absolutely sure that a lap like this
would have been good enough for the second row of the grid at least.
But now I'm only fifth and that's the only reason, why I'm a little bit
disappointed."

8 - Nicola Larini
The Italian was the fastest Alfa pilot and achieved sixth position but
wasn't very confident. "The lap wasn't bad, but it will be very, very
difficult to beat Mercedes tomorrow."

2 - Keke Rosberg
For the first time of the weekend the former Formula 1 world champion
was faster than his team mate Klaus Ludwig. Very relaxed he said after
his lap: "This was a big step forward. But our opponents don't sleep and
we must keep working to stay in touch. Keke anyhow is always fantastic."

26 - Giancarlo Fisichella
The young Italian was fastest at the first interval point, but lost it
all afterwards and achieved only nineth position. "I made a really big
mistake in Bit corner which cost me lots of time and a better position
in the starting grid. But my car is very competitive and so I hope for
good results tomorrow."

1 - Klaus Ludwig
The champion was really disappointed, when he climbed out of his
Calibra: "At first I thought, this was a perfect lap, but then I saw
the time and was really disappointed. There must have been a technical
problem - perhaps the engine didn't reach full revs."

19 - Michael Bartels
The best Alfa driver on DTM's leaderboard won't be able to repeat his
Diepholz result (two victories) without a wonder, as he was just 12
fastest of Top Qualifying. Bartels: "It's very difficult to find a good
balance at the moment. I thought, I'd been faster, but it seems as if we
didn't work in the right direction this weekend."

20 - JJ Lehto
"There was no real problem, the car just didn't go fast enough because
of big understeer. Every time, I wanted to enter a corner, the car
wanted to go straight on."

10 - Yannick Dalmas
This wasn't a fast lap. I had no grip and in my fast lap the ABS
control light lit up three times. For tomorrow we've got to work on the
differential and several other problems."