Augusto Farfus heads BMW 1-2 in Nürburgring qualifying
RBM BMW’s Augusto Farfus has taken pole ahead of rookie stable-mate, Marco Wittmann, at the Nürburgring, with the Audi pairing of Miguel Molina and Edoardo Mortara lining up behind them in third and fourth; their best grid slots of the year.
Farfus set a fastest time of 1m23.296 seconds to claim his second pole position of the year by 0.149s ahead of Wittmann, who takes the second front-row start of his maiden DTM season.
However, the MTEK BMW driver is under investigation for breaching article 30.9 of the sporting regulations, which state he turned into the pit-lane too early.
Gary Paffett finished the afternoon as the best placed of the Mercedes drivers in fifth, ahead of RSC Mucke stable-mate Dani Juncadella, who took his best DTM career grid slot with sixth.
HWA Mercedes drivers, Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris, rounded out the top-8.
Mattias Ekström wound up ninth ahead of reigning champion and last year’s pole-sitter and winner, Bruno Spengler.
Despite Spengler finishing 10th, the surprise of the session was drivers’ championship leader, Mike Rockenfeller, failing to make it into Q3 after missing out by a mere 0.009 seconds.
The Phoenix Audi driver was on the cusp of breaking into the top-10 in the final minutes of Q2, but failed to improve on his best time of 1m23.55 seconds, and will start tomorrow’s race from 11th, behind championship rival Spengler.
This morning’s free practice pace setter, Filipe Albuquerque, was knocked out of Q1, and will line up 17th, ahead of Audi stable-mate Timo Scheider.
Martin Tomczyk and Andy Priaulx, continued their difficult season with RMG BMW as they once again failed to make it out of Q1, and will line up 20th and 22nd respectively.
To compound his tough year, this is the fourth race in a row that Tomczyk has failed to make it out of Q1.
HWA Mercedes’ Roberto Merhi’s qualifying struggles also continued, after he once again qualified on the back row in 21st.
