u00b0 as a result of the ignition in the interior of the mixture region 28 the flame travels through the mixture region 28 are reduced markedly compared to ignition at the periphery hence on the one hand faster and also more complete combustion can be attained on the other as a result an especially stable combustion process is also attained especially in the stratified charge mode of the engine the patty shaped mixture region 28 is due according to the invention to the interaction of the fuel being injected and of the piston and a certain period of time elapses between the end of injection and the onset of ignition so as to enable the formation of the mixture region and to perform ignition of the mixture region 28 in its interior also as a result of the ignition in the interior the deviations that occur from component tolerances do not lead to uneven combustion deviations in the spray geometry from one cycle to the next or performance graph dependent fluctuations in the spray geometry have no influence on the method of the invention either the laser ignition device furthermore has the advantage that no ignition energy losses from quenching phenomena heat dissipation at metal spark plug electrodes occur as they do in the prior art hence in an otto engine high replicability of the sensitive flame core formation is made possible for the first time fig3 shows an alternative embodiment of an injection device 25 in the form of an outward opening annular gap valve a valve the annular gap valve shown injects the fuel in conical shape so that in the sectional view shown in fig3 an annular fuel region 30 is brought about on each side of the fuel region.