Bathgate’s Paul Di Resta suffered a blow to his German Touring Car Championship hopes when he qualified a lowly 10th for today’s third round on the tight Norisring street course in Nuremberg.
The 22-year-old Scot, who entered the weekend just three points off the championship lead in his Mercedes, fell victim to the changing weather conditions and failed to make it into the final qualifying run.
“It’s pretty crap to be honest,” Di Resta admitted frankly. “We have a car which is capable of being on pole position yet, because of the limited number of laps we’re allowed allied to the drying conditions, we lost out.
“What’s worse is that there are very few overtaking opportunities on this street circuit; it’s equivalent to our Monaco Grand Prix. Hopefully though I can get a blistering start and we can do something pretty spectacular with our race strategy.
“It probably means I’ll have to take a few risks that I perhaps wouldn’t normally take in a race. But I know I have a fast car and I have to make sure I use it the best I can.”
To further compound Di Resta’s disappointment, championship leader and defending champion Timo Scheider qualified his Audi on pole position alongside his Abt Sportsline team-mate Mattias Ekstrom.
Canadian Bruno Spengler was the leading Mercedes driver in third, followed by English team-mates Gary Paffett and Jamie Greenin their C-Class Mercs.
JM