Jamie Green scores first pole of the year in Hockenheim
Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver Jamie Green set the fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session for Race 1 of the 2015 DTM season opener in Hockenheim. Audi and Mercedes dominated the session, with BMW struggling for pace.
Green set a best lap time of 1:33.044, 0.372 seconds slower than this morning’s second free practice. The Briton used 2 sets of tyres during the qualifying, of the four he has for both classification sessions and races.
Pascal Wehrlein was second for Mercedes, just 0.116 seconds off Green’s time, being the fastest man on track for the Stuttgart manufacturer.
BMW struggled for pace during the session, with their drivers not being able to get in the top ten. Augusto Farfus set a best time of 1:33.310 on his very last lap, having to be towed back to the pits after what seems running out of fuel.
Christian Vietoris was the fastest man for Mercedes and was improving his laptime, until he went off at the stadium, narrowly avoiding the tyre wall and jumping through the grass. He was able to recover and go back to the pits, ending his session. Vietoris was 18th in the end.
Audi’s Edoardo Mortara, who had dominated both free practice sessions, was fourth, followed by his team mate Nico Müller. Paul Di Resta managed to climb to sixth position, just two thousands of a second off his predecessor.
Mike Rockenfeller and Adrien Tambay followed for Audi, having set exactly the same best register, 1:33.342, although the German prevailed.
Rookie Tom Blomqvist was consistently the fastest man for BMW until the last moment. He managed the ninth best lap, just ahead of Audi’s Miguel Molina completing the top 10.
As it’s usual in the DTM, lap times were very close, with the first 12 separated by less than half a second, and with the whole grid within a margin of 1.124 seconds.
The start of the first race of the 2015 DTM season is scheduled for 14:48 CEST.
