Nico Müller takes maiden pole position in Hockenheim
Nico Müller confirmed this morning’s good form by storming to pole position for the first race of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, taking place this weekend at Hockenheim. The Swiss driver from Audi Sport extracted the most from the tyres in hot conditions to take pole at the last lap.
The sunny and hot conditions have been one of the key factors today, with air temperatures going over 27 degrees celsius by the time the qualifying session had started.
The first driver to set a reference time was Mercedes AMG’s Christian Vietoris, which was quickly improved by Audi’s Jamie Green, with a register of 1:34.302. The track was slower than for this morning’s free practice.
Gary Paffett took the first spot, stolen then by fellow Mercedes AMG driver Robert Wickens. The Canadian set a best lap of 1:34.105, which allowed him to lead the classification as most drivers went back to the pits to prepare for their second stint.
Nico Müller tried to improve his time before changing tyres, but bad second and third sectors rendered his efforts fruitless, staying in second place.
The BMW and Mercedes drivers were quick to take to the track for their final runs, with track temperatures already over 45 degrees.
Bruno Spengler improved to sixth position, with Christian Vietoris climbing up to second. The Audi offensive started with Mike Rockenfeller going second fastest. Miguel Molina also improved to be sixth. In the final moments, and with the chequered flag already waving, Edoardo Mortara went fastest with 1:34.101.
Nico Müller was flying in his final lap, clocking two impressive first and third sectors to take an authoritarian pole with a time of 1:33.876, being the only driver to go below 1:34 in today’s session.
Jamie Green also did a good last lap, but was only able to improve to fourth position, 0.230 seconds behind his team-mate.
Marco Wittmann was the best man for BMW Motorsport in tenth place with his M4 DTM from Team RMG, 0.390 seconds off the pace.
Rookie Esteban Ocon was 12th in his first official DTM qualifying, just behind team-mate at Team ART Gary Paffett.
Mercedes AMG’s Lucas Auer was unable to take part in the session due to the damage sustained in this morning’s free practice incident, and will start last on the grid.
The session was very competitive, with all 23 drivers setting a lap time separated by only 0.908 seconds.
Race 1, to be run for 40 minutes plus one lap, is scheduled for 16:00 CEST.
