Martin Tomczyk claims first BMW career pole at Brands Hatch
Martin Tomczyk has claimed his ninth career pole with a last gasp lap to claim top spot ahead of Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller. Tomczyk’s BMW stablemates, Augusto Farfus and Joey Hand will line up in third and fourth respectively.
The 2011 champion was the last driver to emerge in Q4 and put in his fastest time of 41.158 to steal pole by a mere 0.035 seconds from Audi’s sole representative at the last minute.
Current champion Bruno Spengler will line up fifth, one place ahead of Audi’s Timo Scheider and Marco Wittmann, with the latter having shown strong pace all weekend in only his second DTM career race. Andy Priaulx will line up eighth, as the best of the Brits ahead of the Audis of Miguel Molina and Edoardo Mortara.
The session also saw some high profile names fail to make the top-10 shootout. Double DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom, and crowd favourite, Gary Paffett, both failed to make the cut, whilst Timo Glock was also unable to get through after having his time disallowed as a result of allegedly having four wheels off the track; a ruling which has been brought in this weekend.
Abt Sportsline Audi’s Jamie Green suffered a torrid qualifying session and will start 18th, despite setting the sixth best time in Q1. However, his lap was disallowed after he crossed a mere 0.001 seconds after the chequered flag dropped at the end of the session. As a result, he will line up ahead of Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris and Audi stablemate Filipe Albuquerque. Further back, the two Mercedes’ of Roberto Merhi and the team’s rookie, Pascal Wehrlein, finished the session in 21st and 22nd respectively.
