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.
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