Photo: DTM Media

Miguel Molina scores pole position ahead of Tom Blomqvist at the Nürburgring

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Audi Sport Team Abt driver Miguel Molina took his second pole positon of the 2015 DTM season at the Nürburgring, outqualifying BMW Team RBM driver Tom Blomqvist by two-tenths of a second, with the Audi Team Rosberg RS 5 of Jamie Green third quickest.

23 cars took part in the session, with ART Mercedes’ Gary Paffett suffering an engine issue in the warm-up and was forced to sit out the session while they change the engine for this afternoon’s race.

Yesterday’s race winner Maxime Martin set an early benchmark of 1:22.488 in his BMW Team RMG M4 DTM, before Paul di Resta put his HWA Mercedes on top with a time of 1:22.213 shortly before Molina set the fastest time during the first runs of 1:22.168.

During the final part of the session, war broke out for pole position again, with di Resta snatching back P1, before BMW Team MTEK’s Bruno Spengler went fastest with a time of 1:22.049, before di Resta snatched it back with a time just 0.003 faster.

Then Molina produced a stunning time of 1:21.732 to bank pole position by a significant margin, with Oschersleben race winner Tom Blomqvist then producing a lap of 1:21.939, the only other driver under the 1:22 barrier to grab second on the grid.

Jamie Green produced a late improvement to go third fastest, while di Resta had to settle for fourth, the best placed Mercedes driver, with Spengler fifth.

Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein, who has an outside chance of being able to wrap up the drivers’ title this afternoon, qualified in ninth, almost half a second from Molina’s time, while his two closest championship rivals struggled. Mattias Ekström qualified in 17th in his Abt Audi, complaining of low grip, while team-mate Edoardo Mortara, second yesterday and fastest in the warm-up, was only 20th.

Race two gets underway at 13:35 CET.