Augusto Farfus secured his first DTM pole position of the year at the Nurburgring as title contenders Mike Rockenfeller and Bruno Spengler failed to challenge for the top spots.
RBM BMW driver Farfus was the third of four drivers to set a time in the single-lap Q4 shootout for pole, his 1m23.296s lap putting him on the top spot and keeping him there when Marco Wittmann failed to knock him off by 0.149 second.
Wittmann’s second place on the grid is under threat, however, the MTEK BMW driver currently being investigated for a breach of article 30.9 of the sporting regulations by turning into his pit box too early.
Miguel Molina was Audi’s highest-placed driver in third, the Phoenix man making Q4 for the first time since 2011 and joining Edoardo Mortara’s Rosberg RS5 on row two.
Gary Paffett led a train of Mercedes drivers in fifth, the HWA driver followed by Daniel Juncadella, who took the best qualifying spot of his DTM career in sixth. Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris were next up with Mattias Ekstrom and Spengler who was never a factor in Q3 following on.
Rockenfeller was expected to qualify strongly after setting the pace in Q1, but was knocked into the drop zone when both Juncadella and Molina moved up the order late in Q2. His final lap was 0.011sec too slow to move the championship leader up the order.
Spengler’s late Q1 flyer meant that practice pacesetter Filipe Albuquerque missed out on progressing by just a hundredth of a second while two-time champion Timo Scheider and Britain’s Andy Priaulx were also eliminated.
Priaulx’s RMG BMW teammate Martin Tomczyk will start 20th, meaning the 2011 champion has failed to make it out of Q1 for four consecutive races.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 1m23.296s 2. Marco Wittmann MTEK BMW 1m23.445s +0.149s 3. Miguel Molina Phoenix Audi 1m23.451s +0.155s 4. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi 1m23.648s +0.352s 5. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 1m23.514s Q3 6. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes 1m23.617s Q3 7. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 1m23.688s Q3 8. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 1m23.688s Q3 9. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 1m23.803s Q310. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 1m23.822s Q311. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 1m23.555s Q212. Jamie Green Abt Audi 1m23.574s Q213. Timo Glock MTEK BMW 1m23.665s Q214. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 1m23.684s Q215. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Mercedes 1m23.687s Q216. Joey Hand RBM BMW 1m23.737s Q217. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi 1m23.914s Q118. Timo Scheider Abt Audi 1m24.091s Q119. Dirk Werner Schnitzer BMW 1m24.198s Q120. Martin Tomczyk RMG BMW 1m24.225s Q121. Roberto Merhi HWA Mercedes 1m24.359s Q122. Andy Priaulx RMG BMW 1m24.505s Q1
Comments