| Tom Kristensen quickest of the day at Brno |
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  On his DTM debut at Hockenheim, Allan McNish, found himself finishing a practice session in last place for the first time ever in his career. At Brno (Czech Republic), the former Formula 1 driver proved on Friday that he is a quick learner and getting a progressively better handle on Europe's most popular Touring Car series: at the wheel of the Audi A4 DTM entered by Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, the Scot clocked his first best time in the DTM in the morning session. His time of 1m 54.700s was only undercut in the second test in the afternoon by six-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, who claimed the quickest time of the day - 1m 54.433s - for Audi, despite the fact that the Dane had only been able to complete five laps in the morning due to an engine-related problem.
Like last year, both test sessions showed that the demanding circuit at Brno seems to suit the Audi A4 DTM particularly well: in the morning, title defender Audi clinched positions one to five. In the afternoon, four Audi drivers finished among the top six. And the drivers of last year's A4 cars must be reckoned with at Brno as well: Christian Abt in the cockpit of the Audi A4 DTM entered by Audi Sport Team Joest clocked the fourth-best time and was thus the quickest driver of a car from the previous season.
All Audi drivers on Friday concentrated on the set-up for Sunday's race because the circuit at Brno is considered to be especially tough on the tyres. The starting positions will be decided in Saturday's Qualifying and Super Pole sessions. ARD will broadcast live from Brno, starting at 2 p.m. (local time).
Audi dominates the Friday at Brno
Following the second DTM test session at Brno, Czech Republic, the order on the time sheets looked much more varied than it had done after session one. Once again, an Audi driver - Tom Kristensen - set the fastest lap time. Behind the wheel of his Audi A4 DTM, the Dane lapped the 5.403-kilometre rollercoaster in 1:54.433 minutes. But while five Audis had taken the top five positions, in session one, British Mercedes driver Jamie Green succeeded in coming second, this time. In his AMG-Mercedes C-Class, Green crossed the line in 1:54.773 minutes, thus improving his time set in the morning session by more than two seconds. The third position on the time sheets was taken by another Audi driver: reigning champion Matthias Ekström, whose lag to Kristensen added up to 0.484 seconds.
The quickest man of the morning session, Allan McNish, was the busiest driver in the second and covered a total of 31 laps. Yet, he had to settle for fifth place behind Mercedes works driver Jean Alesi, while Martin Tomczyk (Audi) and Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) also succeeded in setting times less than a second slower than Kristensen's.
Stefan Mücke - the fastest driver of a 2004 spec car - was 1.042 seconds slower than the Dane and finished eighth. Heinz-Harald Frentzen - once again the fastest Opel driver - took ninth place, 1.116 seconds behind Kristensen. "The day started quite well, this morning," said Frentzen late in the afternoon, "And in session two, we continued to fine-tune the car. In our long-run, we gained quite a lot of interesting data, but before we opt for further steps we have to analyse these data."
Gary Paffet came tenth, 1.163 seconds behind the leader. While Bernd Schneider won't be happy with his result achieved on day one of the Brno weekend. The DTM Record Champion had to settle for 19th position.
Demanding test in the Czech Republic
The 5.403-kilometre circuit at Brno, Czech Republic, represents a true challenge, with its layout resembling the one of the Ardennes rollercoaster that made for such a thrilling race, at the Whitsun weekend. But in addition to the circuit's layout, its tarmac also represents a true challenge. Opel works driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen explains: "The Brno circuit is rather demanding, as the track surface offers a lot of friction. Therefore, you need a lot of sensitiveness to find the perfect suspension set-up for the tires."
Enzo Scaramella, Manager Motorsport of DTM's exclusive tire partner, Dunlop, confirms: "The Brno track surface is the arguably most aggressive of all the venues on the DTM calendar. On the one hand, this makes for a lot of grip, on the other for an above-average tyre wear." Furthermore, nearly the entire circuit represents a combination of fast and semi-fast bends.
"Even the slowest corner is a third-gear bend," explains six-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM). "All the time it's uphill, downhill, and for the fast bends, you need both a lot of downforce and a good set-up. But I love this circuit and I'm delighted that Brno is a DTM venue, once again." Yet, before the set-up can be found, driver, race engineer and Dunlop's tire engineer have to agree on what is necessary. They focus on gathering the optimum heating temperatures, heating periods, air pressure and further parameters by comparing last year's data with those gained in the free practice sessions held on Friday and Saturday morning, to acquire the best possible compromise regarding tire performance and durability. Furthermore, the long-runs completed during the course of the practice sessions are used to determine the perfect time slots for the two obligatory pit stops that must be made during the course of the race. Basically it can be said that the more demanding a circuit, the more the teams try to divide the race distance into three stints of the same length.
Due to the lateral acceleration, the tires are extremely deformed
The combination of relatively fast bends and the aggressive track surface takes the tires to their very load limit, as these parameters make for extreme lateral forces. Enzo Scaramella: "Due to high grip level, the tires are virtually glued to the track surface. At the same time, the lateral acceleration in the fast bends makes the car - and the tires - move to the outside of the corner. This results in the tires being extremely deformed." Yet, the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx - used since the 2004 season - is extremely good when it comes to coping with these extreme demands. During its development already - basing on the Ultra High Performance product for the everyday use - the engineers focused on achieving a perfect stress distribution in the tyre.
Five Audis the quickest in test one
Audi clearly dominated the first clash of the Brno weekend, as five Audis A4 DTM succeeded in setting the best lap times, in the first test, on Friday morning. The fastest man of the session was Allan McNish, who lapped the 5.403-kilometre 'Auto Motodrom Brno' in 1:54.700 minutes. His brand-mates, Mattias Ekström, Martin Tomczyk, Christian Abt and Tom Kristensen, completed the top five, with fourth placed Christian Abt also being the fastest driver of a 2004 spec car.
The quickest man behind the wheel of a car not bearing the four rings was Jean Alesi. In his Mercedes-AMG C-Class, the winner of the season opener took sixth place, 1.215 seconds behind McNish. While Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished eighth behind Audi's Pierre Kaffer, thus proving to be the fastest driver of an Opel Vectra GTS V8.
In brilliant conditions, with the temperatures reaching 23.3°C (air) and 33.9°C (track) respectively, the fastest times set in test session one were nearly 1.7 seconds slower than the one Mattias Ekström had set last year on the way to clinch pole. In the 2004 Super Pole session, the Swede had crossed the line in 1:53.009 minutes.
The session had to be red-flagged due to Tom Kristensen stopping his Audi A4 DTM on the track after hearing a strange noise. The car was towed back to the Audi Sport Team Abt garage where the engineers are now looking for the cause of the noise.
Quotes after Friday's tests
Tom Kristensen (Audi Sport Team Abt #5)
5th place / 1st place, 1m 54.433s
"Because of a technical problem I hardly got to do any driving this morning. But thanks to the valuable data from my team-mates and the great job done by the mechanics I was able to clock the best time this afternoon and collect a lot of data, which we're going to evaluate now. Although the quickest time on Friday doesn't mean anything at all, it always makes me sleep like a baby and it shows how good my Audi A4 is."
Allan McNish (Audi Sport Team Abt #6)
1st place / 5th place, 1m 54.700s
"This has been a very good day. It's my first time here at Brno and I immediately took a liking to the circuit. It has character and represents a challenge. My A4 has some improvements based on the findings gained at Spa and during the latest tests. The car's balance is very good, perhaps there's a bit too much oversteer. But we're among the front runners."
Mattias Ekström (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline #1)
2nd place / 3rd place, 1m 54.892s
"I really like the circuit at Brno, and like it even better this way: there's a lot of dirt on the track, which even makes for a bit of a rally feeling. And, let's face it, that's what suits me in particular. All kidding aside though: we have made great progress today and completely finished our extensive testing programme."
Martin Tomczyk (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline #2)
3rd place / 6th place, 1m 55.076s
"I'm pretty satisfied. My long run wasn't one hundred per cent perfect, we still need to do some work on the rear axle. Today we only tested for the race and are now well sorted for this. Tomorrow morning we're going to concentrate on the optimal set-up for Qualifying."
Christian Abt (Audi Sport Team Joest Racing #14)
4th place / 17th place, 1m 55.636s
"All of our work today was focussed on the race. Tonight I can go to bed completely relaxed because the car is working well. In the morning, I was fourth - and I know that I would have been at the very front again in the afternoon if I had put on fresh tyres. But I decided it was better to save them for Sunday."
Rinaldo Capello (Audi Sport Team Joest #18)
20th place / 13th place, 1m 55.925s
"I'm happy, because this afternoon we finally solved the understeer problem. We changed two things on the car, which helped. At first, I had to get used to having real grip at the front axle. That's why I didn't take as much advantage of the new tyres as I could have. Yet I'm very satisfied with the time I clocked with used tyres."
Pierre Kaffer (Audi Sport Team Joest Racing #15)
7th place / 18th place, 1m 55.962s
"I like the circuit at Brno and am actually quite satisfied with the way the day went - except for my excursion into the gravel trap just before the end. We're heading in a good direction with our set-up. I'm sure you'll find us closer to the front tomorrow."
Frank Stippler (Audi Sport Team Joest #19)
19th place / 16th place, 1m 56.085s
"The car's not handling quite the way I'd like it to. We need to try and change that by tomorrow. Perhaps I also need to adjust my driving style to this circuit, which is new to me. Generally, I like Brno. The circuit offers a lot of variety, it's not one of those 'synthetic' types."
Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): "I'm proud of our compact team performance: all four cars are among the top six - even though Friday's results are not very conclusive, this is a nice feeling. Particularly after last year's experience when we celebrated the Champion's title here, Brno brings back a lot of good memories. And of course we'd like to repeat this feeling. We've taken the first step today by fully focussing on our Friday programme, which we completed with clockwork precision."
Ralf Jüttner (Technical Director Audi Sport Team Joest): "Today we tried out different things and are satisfied with our work. The long runs were very good, and that makes us feel confident for the race. Today, we didn't do any work to prepare for the Qualifying, we're going to make up for this tomorrow in the Free Practice.
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): "We successfully completed our programmes for Friday with all of our cars consequently. Considering the long runs we've seen, I think that we've created a pretty good starting base for this weekend."
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Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 @ 11:55:40 BST by audioc |
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Average Score: 5
Votes: 4
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