Photo: Tamara Aller / Touring Car Times

Bruno Spengler gets the pole position for Race 2 at Norisring

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BMW Motorsport driver Bruno Spenger scored the pole position for this afternoon’s Race 2 at the Norisring, host of the third round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The Canadian thus put the Bavarian manufacturer at the front for the first time this season.

In the initial stages, Audi’s Jamie Green got ahead, but quickly the Mercedes continued their form from this morning, with Robert Wickens topping the charts, followed by Christian Vietoris.

BMW started their climb to the top with Maxime Martin going up to fourth. Bruno Spengler moved to third, with the Belgian improving again to sit right behind him.

At the half way mark all drivers came into the pits to put on fresh tyres. Mercedes’ Chris Vietoris, fourth in yesterday’s race, beat Wickens by just 0.009 seconds. The Canadian from Mercedes tried to improve, but to no avail.

In the closing stages, and when it all seemed set for a BMW front row, Bruno Spengler pulled a great lap and moved up to the first position, with a time of 48.280 at the wheel of his M4 DTM.

Vietoris was second, with a disappointed Robert Wichens on third. Mattias Ekström was fourth overall and best man for Audi.

Another of the surprises of the session came from Lucas Auer. The Rookie, in the ranks of Mercedes’ new partner ART GP, was fifth, just 0.142 away from Spengler.

Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein was sixth, followed by Jamie Green and Paul Di Resta. Maxime Martin was ninth, with Daniel Juncadella closing the top ten.

Robert Wickens didn’t hide that he had higher aspirations this time: “I’m disappointed that I couldn’t improve with my second set of tyres. I hope we can get the car ready for the race. It’s better than starting at the back, but I think we could have scored the pole position.”

The session was largely trouble free, although a few drivers, like Miguel Molina, touched the wall, but without consequences. Once again, times were close, with the whole field within 0.625 seconds.

The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 15:18 CEST (GMT + 2).