Photo: DTM

Augusto Farfus and BMW lock out top four in Zandvoort DTM qualifying

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Augusto Farfus took pole position for Race 1 at Zandvoort, by a sensational 0.008 seconds from 2014 DTM champion and BMW stablemate Marco Wittmann.

With 1m30 of the 20 minute session remaining, Farfus, who was quickest in the second Free Practice of the Zandvoort DTM weekend, set a pole time of 1m31.266s to take his first pole of the 2015 DTM season.

Antonio Felix da Costa was third in his BMW M4 DTM, matching Wittmann’s time of 1:31.274.

Maxime Martin rounded off a BMW 1-2-3-4, ahead of Gary Paffett’s ART Grand Prix prepared Mercedes in fifth.

For the majority of the session, Paffett appeared to be on course for his first pole position of 2015, and the 12th of his DTM career after banking a time early in the session of 1:31.570.

Championship leader Jamie Green was sixth as the best placed Audi driver behind the wheel of his Audi RS5 DTM.

Timo Glock, DTM rookie Tom Blomqvist and 2012 DTM champion Bruno Spengler locked out positions 7 to 9 for BMW. Miguel Molina rounded out the top-10 for Audi.

Double DTM champion Mattias Ekström endured a difficult session. Second in the championship and just 9 points behind his Audi stablemate Jamie Green in the points, the Swede will line up 19th.

Fellow former DTM title winner Paul di Resta also had a tough qualifying, after dropping his Mercedes in the gravel with 28 seconds of the session remaining. The Scot brought out the yellow flags, and will line up 22nd.