DTM: Wickens takes pole for Zandvoort opener

Mercedes' Robert Wickens earned pole position for the first DTM race of the series' Dutch visit to Zandvoort.

The Canadian emerged in front after a late flurry of times on the field's second runs rendered the first efforts pretty much redundant. Wickens and his HWA-run C63 held on despite a last-lap run from the BMW of 2014 champion Marco Wittmann.

Wittmann bounced back from only getting a handful of laps in Friday free practice due to damage sustained early in the session, and was already third when he went on his final flier. He set the best time in the first sector, but failed to improve his own best in the remaining two, meaning he fell short of Wickens by 0.116 seconds, even though he managed to bump the Mercedes of Christian Vietoris down to third.

"It's a bit emotional," said Wickens. "This track last year was probably one of the lowest points of my racing career, so to turn it around with P1 is amazing."

Qualifying continued what has been a Mercedes weekend so far, with Wickens and Gary Paffett topping the two free practice sessions – Paffett ended up fourth in qualifying.

Just 0.006s shy of Paffett was Jamie Green, who finished the session as the leading Audi driver, with stablemate Edoardo Mortara just behind him in sixth.

Fresh from his Mercedes Formula 1 test at Silverstone, Esteban Ocon put in the best qualifying performance of his rookie season – ironically on a track in which he never raced in F3 – to take seventh on the grid in the sister ART machine to Paffett's.

Eighth was the BMW of Antonio Felix da Costa, who headed the times after the first runs. Completing the top 10 are Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) and Timo Glock (BMW).

Miguel Molina was 18th fastest, but faces a five-place grid drop for receiving three black-and-white warning flags in free practice.

One of the luckiest drivers was Maximilian Gotz, who lost it exiting the ultra-fast Scheivlak bend and backed his Mercedes into the inside barrier, before bringing it back to the pits and briefly holding pole on the second runs before he was demoted to 15th.

Originally on Autosport.com