Photo: DTM Media

Farfus takes pole as championship contenders struggle

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Augusto Farfus took a surprising pole position in today’s qualifying at Valencia. The Brazilian came first ahead of the three Audis of Edoardo Mortara, Filipe Albuquerque and Adrien Tambay, who had set the fastest lap time in Q3.

Mike Rockenfeller confirmed Audi’s strong form, while Andy Priaulx took sixth just under the flag in Q3. Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström formed an all-Audi fourth row, while Dirk Werner and local hero Miguel Molina rounded up the top ten.

All three championship contenders were excluded before Q3, with Jamie Green starting the surprises by classifying eighteenth and missing out on Q2.

Gary Paffett made it through but didn’t manage anything better than sixteenth, as Bruno Spengler also missed out on the opportunity by claiming the twelfth spot on the grid and missing the access to the third session by 0.008 seconds. Martin Tomczyk was eleventh, just one thousandth of a second behind Ekström, who classified tenth in Q2.

Poleman Augusto Farfus commented:
“I love this track and always had a special relationship with it. I have to thank the team and Jens [Marquardt] for putting their faith into me and making all this possible.

I felt comfortable in the car straight away, and knew that Q4 was possible. I didn’t think I could take pole though, so I’m extremely happy and I’m looking forward to a good race tomorrow.”