Jamie Green takes Race 2 pole by just 0.002 in Spielberg
Jamie Green pulled a great effort to score the pole position for Race 2 at the Red Bull Ring in a very competitive qualifying session at the Styrian track, host of the second round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The Briton from Audi Sport managed to get ahead at the last moment to achieve his first pole of the year, and tenth of his DTM career.
The session was held under dry and sunny conditions, with rising temperatures compared to this morning’s third free practice session.
Jamie Green set a best time of 1:22.680 with two minutes to go at the wheel of his RS 5 DTM run by Team Rosberg, depriving BMW’s António Félix Da Costa, who ended the qualifying just 0.002 seconds behind Green.
BMW has strong results behind Green, with both Timo Glock and Maxime Martin qualifiying behind Da Costa for the Bavarian manufacturer.
Edoardo Mortara was fifth for Audi Sport, 0.132 seconds off the pace, just ahead of another of the BMW contingent, Augusto Farfus, who tied for time with Mortara, followed by BMW’s Bruno Spengler and Tom Blomqvist.
Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller and yesterday’s winner, BMW’s Marco Wittmann, completed the top ten, with the 2014 champion only 0.203 seconds off pole position.
Mattias Ekström was 11th for Audi, reporting blocking from Mercedes’ Esteban Ocon, who had just gone off ahead of the Swede. The incident is being investigated by the stewards after the session, as well as alleged blockings from both Martin Tomczyk and Mike Rockenfeller to Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris.
The session was, however, disastrous for the Mercedes AMG team, who struggled to get into the top positions. Robert Wickens was the best place man for the Stuttgart outfit in 15th place, 0.378 seconds off the pace. Standings leader Paul Di Resta was 24th and last, 0.640 seconds behind the poleman, highlighting how close the field is.
The DTM will be back on track for Race 2, scheduled for 15:10 CEST.
