Audi is confident that it will not suffer a repeat of the tire problems this weekend that affected several of its cars in the DTM season opener at Hockenheim.
Mattias Ekstrom took Audi's first pole position of the season at Valencia on Saturday, and with track temperatures creeping towards 50 degrees Celsius, a lot of focus has been on the longevity of the tires over a long stint.
Audi investigated the issue thoroughly after Hockenheim, which included a tire test at Almeria in Spain with Ekstrom and Timo Scheider. And Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich is confident after the manufacturer worked on tire life again in free practice this morning.
"We have put in quite some effort to solve the issues we had at Hockenheim and we collected a lot of data," said Ullrich after qualifying. "We are better prepared than ever before. We had good long runs in practice today with no issues, so I'm optimistic."
Ullrich admitted that the high temperatures this weekend could still throw a wrench in the works on race day.
"Temperature will be an issue," he said. "The setup will be key – to have performance and being able to look after the tires will be tough, but I think we have a solution."