DTM: Wickens beats Glock to pole

Robert Wickens took a last-gasp pole position in an exciting DTM qualifying showdown at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The Mercedes driver could not have waited any longer, storming to pole with a 1m25.175s flyer that came well after the checkered flag had started to fly.

It was a recovery of sorts, the Canadian spinning on his first flying effort in Q3, before putting everything together to take his second pole of the season on his last flying lap.

Wickens' late effort spoiled BMW's party, with Timo Glock seemingly on for pole, ahead of Marco Wittmann and Augusto Farfus. In the end, the trio were forced to settle for second, third and fourth, respectively. Pascal Wehrlein was fifth for Mercedes, ahead of Brit Jamie Green, who was Audi's sole representative in Q3.

Christian Vietoris made it three Mercedes in the top 10 with seventh, while Moscow winner Maxime Martin was eighth. Joey Hand was ninth, having missed out on a Q1 spot by just 0.017 second. Bruno Spengler rounded out the top 10.

Nico Muller, meanwhile, lost any chance of going for pole thanks to an electrical problem that cut out his power steering at the start of Q2. He was unable to set a time, leaving him stranded in 18th.

Gary Paffett was another one of the hard luck stories of the session. The Mercedes driver almost did enough to get through Q1, matching 18th placed Timo Scheider to the thousandth of a second. But Scheider set his time first, meaning Paffett was left in 19th and out of Q1. Scheider went on to finish 14th.

Joining Paffett on the sidelines after Q1 were Audi pair Adrien Tambay and Edoardo Mortara, with Vitaly Petrov 22nd, and Paul di Resta, who missed the majority of free practice two thanks to a crash, in last.