Audi comes to England as DTM leader

The Audi Sport team has had not much time to recover since the historical triumph with the Audi R10 TDI at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: On the first weekend in July, the next round of the DTM in Brands Hatch on the outskirts of London is on the agenda. The DTM and Sportscar projects run independently from one another within Audi Sport, however, many of the 150 employees are involved in both projects.

This also includes Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen, who travels to the British round of the most popular international touring car series as championship leader - and with the sweetest memories: At the official pre-season test, the Dane recorded the best time in Brands Hatch with a 41.587 second lap. The test doubled as a roll-out for his Siemens Audi A4 DTM, with which he has since gone on to claim a brace of second places and, more recently, the championship lead after taking victory at Oschersleben.

Just like his team mates, Kristensen is also looking forward to the short 1.973 kilometre "Indy Circuit”. The shortest track on the DTM calendar is considered to be one of the most spectacular and demanding of the year. The spectators can see almost the entire circuit, 82 laps around roller-coaster track will push man and machine to their limits. Strategy will play a major role, in qualifying hundredths and thousandths of a second will be decisive.

Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline tested with all four drivers at Magny-Cours (France) immediately after the race at Oschersleben, collecting valuable information which the team wants to implement at Brands Hatch. Audi Sport Team Phoenix and Audi Sport Team Rosberg also expect to show well with their year-old cars. The customer team Futurecom TME arrives at a track for the first time at which it has already tested with the Audi A4 DTM from the 2004 season.

Qualifying at Brands Hatch starts on Saturday, 1 July at 12:37 p.m. local time (1:37 p.m. in Germany). The race will be started at noon owing to the Football World Cup and the Tour de France - two hours earlier than normal. ARD broadcasts qualifying live on Saturday from 2:03 p.m. and the race on Sunday from 12:50 p.m.