British duo make DTM race debuts with Audi at Hockenheim

Oliver Jarvis and Katherine Legge head for the second round of the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) at Oschersleben next weekend (20 Apr) looking to build upon their first foray into the world’s most popular international touring car series.

Jarvis started an impressive eighth on the grid and completed the first lap in sixth after a tremendous start. Having been muscled back to ninth place, Jarvis pitted on lap 12 and resumed in 11th but stopped again four laps later for his second and final compulsory pit-stop dropping to 16th. Back in ninth by lap 20, Jarvis ultimately took the chequered flag 40.720secs behind the winning Audi of reigning champion Mattias Ekström (Sweden).

Meanwhile Legge, starting 19th, pitted on lap 13 and resumed in 18th then made her final stop on lap 21. Former World Champions Niki Lauda and Mika Hakkinen were among the large crowd.

With a commanding 1-2-3 victory in the season-opening Hockenheim race, Audi yet again underlined the brand’s slogan "Vorsprung durch Technik", not only on the road but on the circuit with its new Audi A4 DTM which outperformed the competition on its racing début clinching positions one, two, three and five.

The fourth-generation Audi A4 DTM features leading-edge technology with numerous innovative details, particularly in the area of aerodynamics. Using advanced CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) calculations, the engineers intensively worked on the airflow around and through the car. Additionally, technology specialists at Audi Sport managed to lower the vehicle’s centre of gravity and achieved a further reduction of the car’s dry weight. With the four-litre V8 engine that delivers approximately 460 hp, the engineers found further development potential as well.

Oliver Jarvis (24), from Burwell, Cambs. Audi Sport Team Phoenix, Audi A4DTM (2007):
Qualified: 8th (1:33.716). Race Result: 9th
"My start was great and I managed to move up to sixth place. In the first two corners, though, I had to ease up a bit, and my tyres collected some dirt which then caused my car to oversteer. Just as I was about to leave my pit box following my first stop, I had to stop briefly as Ralf Schumacher came down the pit lane which cost me a second. Bernd Schneider overtook me during the pit stop phase and the race became very tough. After the second pit stop, my Audi team-mate Mike Rockenfeller was really putting on the pressure. I was just one place off scoring a point and that was too bad – still, it was a good first race."

Katherine Legge (27), Haslemere, Surrey. Futurecom-TME, Audi A4DTM (2006):
Qualified: 19th (1:35.784). Race Result: 18th
"At my first DTM race the atmosphere was great and it was a fantastic experience. Unfortunately, our race didn’t go according to plan because we had a few problems. But we did finish and can learn from this."