Gary Paffett takes pole under tricky conditions at Moscow
Mercedes AMG’s Gary Paffett made the most of the tricky track conditions to score the pole position for today’s Race 1 at the Moscow Raceway, host of the sixth round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.
The session started under cloudy skies and with a wet track, but no rain. In a series where there are only slick and wet tyres, the question rapidly became which of the two compounds would be faster in the conditions.
At the green light, drives went on track with wet tyres to evaluate the state of the tarmac. Audi Sport driver Mattias Ekström was the first to set a reference time, which was soon beaten in quick succession by Mercedes AMG’s Daniel Juncadella and BMW Motorsport’s Timo Glock.
Times were falling, but not enough to presume the track was becoming dry. Edoardo Mortara climbed up to second to be quickly improved by BMW’s Maxime Martin and fellow Audi driver Nico Müller.
Soon, the drivers on the circuit started looking for wet patches, as areas in heavy braking zones were drying up.
Mercedes was the first to gamble, with Daniel Juncadella mounting slicks for his second stint. Conversely, fellow Team HWA I driver Robert Wickens went for a second set of wets seconds after.
Mercedes AMG Team ART drivers became the pace setters, with Gary Paffett clocking a best lap of 1:43.071, and team-mate Felix Rosenqvist going second. The Briton started a series of laps improving his sectors and final registers every time, still on wet tyres.
With only one minute left on the clock, Maxime Martin and Maximilian Götz topped the classification, but Gary Paffett was on a flyer with the chequered flag already out.
Robert Wickens went fastest, but Gary Paffett improved his time, with a final lap or 1:41.443, the only driver in the field to break the 1:42 barrier.
Mercedes AMG had the key to the session, with Paul Di Resta finishing in third, just ahead of Maximilian Götz.
Mattias Ekström was the best man for Audi Sport in fifth place, 1.007 seconds behind Paffett, followed by the best BMW M4 DTM, driven by Maxime Martin.
Timo Scheider was eighth, followed by Timo Glock, Felix Rosenqvist and Jamie Green completing the top ten, 1.427 seconds off the pace.
The gamble to mount slicks proved a losing one in the end, with Daniel Juncadella down in 22nd place, and Nico Müller, who had set the pace in second free practice, in 17th.
Race 1 is scheduled for 13:30 local time.
