Photo: DTM Media

Gary Paffett takes pole position for Race 2 in Hockenheim

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Mercedes AMG ART GP driver Gary Paffett got the pole position for the Race 2 in Hockenheim this afternoon, which will write the final action for the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The Briton improved his time at the very last lap to take his first pole position of the year.

The session took place under dry and sunny conditions, with the DTM field using slick tyres. BMW started leading the classification, with Maxime Martin clocking the first flying lap, being beaten by Bruno Spengler.

With the track constantly improving, so did the lap times, and the positions at the top were changing constantly. Mercedes AMG briefly topped the classification with Paul Di Resta, befor the Audi drivers Jamie Green and Miguel Molina got themselves in front. After 10 minutes, the Spaniard led with a time of 1:32.746.

Drivers changed tyres and went out for their second outing. Mattias Ekström improved to take the first position away from his team-mate. As most drivers were on the track, times fell rapidly, with the Audi men on the move to take the leading positions.

With the time already up and on his very last flying lap, Gary Paffett beat the field to set a best time of 1:32.645, taking the pole position. Jamie Green also improved in his last outing to take the second place, 0.038 seconds behind his countryman.

Team Abt Sportsline occupied the second row of the grid, with Mattias Ekström and Miguel Molina. BMW’s Maxime Martin was fifth, 0.181 seconds behind Paffett.

Audi continued their effort taking the following three positions with Adrien Tambay, Nico Müller and Timo Scheider.

Mercedes’ Maximilian Götz and BMW’s Augusto Farfus completed the top 10, with the Brazilian only 0.331 seconds off the pace.

Newly crowned champion Pascal Wehrlein qualified in 17th place for the race, with team-mate Christian Vietoris being 24th and last. The gooix/Original Teile pair at HWA AG leads the Teams’ standings, with 27 points over BMW Team RMG.

BMW Motorsport has a 56-point advantage over Audi Sport in the Manufacturers’ table. A 1-2-3-4-5 finish for the Ingolstadt squad would give them the title.

The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 15:15 and will run for 60 minutes plus one lap, with one compulsory pit stop.