Christian Vietoris disappointed to miss out on pole

HWA Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris admitted he is disappointed after qualifying third for today’s DTM season opener at Hockenheim.

Vietoris, 24, conceded to TouringCarTimes that P3 is a disappointment after battling for pole position in yesterday’s qualifying session.

When asked how he feels to have missed out on a maiden DTM career pole, he replied: “I am still [disappointed].”

“To be honest, I didn’t think about any results because it’s hard to judge. Testing was wet and in free practice this morning it was wet as well, so we didn’t really know what to expect.

“I still don’t know why [I missed the pole] as my lap was quite clean, [I made] no mistakes and it felt pretty fast; I thought I was at the limit.

“Still, third place is alright.

Despite saying his car feels good, Vietoris refused to be drawn into making any predictions as to what he can do from third due to unknown factors surrounding today’s race.

“The car felt good in dry conditions, so I felt something was possible,” he said.

“[But] again it’s hard to say how strong we’re going be compared to the others because we have to run the option tyre and don’t know how long it’ll work for. It’s really hard to say.

“We’ll try and push as hard as we can but we’ll have to see if the race pace is good enough compared to BMW and Audi.”

P3 is Vietoris’ second best DTM career qualifying position, with his best result coming at Brands Hatch last season when he lined up second.