Ekstr?m claims front row start for Audi.

After setting the quickest time in practice and qualifying for round six of the DTM, Mattias Ekstr?m had to settle for second place after super pole saw him beaten to top spot by the Mercedes-Benz of Gary Paffett.

The Audi A4 driver was six tenths of a second slower than in qualifying during the one lap shootout and was pleased to be on the front row - although he admitted he would rather have been on pole.

"I truly had two fantastic days here - up to the super pole lap," he said. "Considering that I'd been the quickest in all of the sessions, the team would definitely have deserved my starting from pole. I don't know why, but in the super pole lap the tyres suddenly had less grip than in the qualifying. I really had to fight hard, and given these circumstances, I'm more than happy with position two. And, for the race we have a really good setup."

Christian Abt recorded his best qualifying performance of the season to take third. After struggling in the third sector of the lap during practice, he was pleased to get a strong lap together when it really mattered.

"In both the free practice and the qualifying session, everything was going well in the first and second sector," he said. "Yet in the final sector I kept losing four to five tenths of a second. That's why I fully concentrated on the final sector in the super pole. I'm really happy: finally, I've made it to the very front of the field. Now, I'm going to go into the race completely calm and collected and try to help Mattias."

After mistakes in super pole, Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk will start the race from the fifth row of the grid with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela eleventh and 14th.

Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich believes the team are in a good position for the race.

"Needless to say, we were aiming for pole after being so far ahead in all the practice sessions," he said. "Unfortunately - for various reasons - we weren't able to fully apply this advantage in the qualifying session. We now have to analyse why Mattias' tyres didn't have the same grip in the super pole lap as in the qualifying. Still, he'll be starting
from the first row. Christian, as well, rendered a super performance. We've got four cars in the top ten, and that's a good basis for the race. Tomorrow, we're going to try to make the best of it."