Lucas Auer gets second pole of the season at Nürburgring
Mercedes AMG driver Lucas Auer was again the fastest man in today’s qualifying session at the Nürburgring. After being fastest yesterday, but losing the pole due to a grid penalty, the young Austrian from Team Mücke will start in front of the pack after dominating the session.
The session started with Nico Müller setting an early pace, with a 1.25.165. The German driver from Audi Team Abt was quickly improved by Mercedes AMG’s Christian Vietoris and then by Gary Paffett.
The Mercedes were making the most from their initial run, with the Stuttgart manufacturer taking the first six positions of the table.
However, with track temperatures and general lack of grip being an issue, half of the field, including the BMW drivers, didn’t venture onto the track until seven of the 20 minutes were gone.
Timo Glock got ahead for BMW, but was improved by Lucas Auer, with the Austrian showing a strong pace.
After the first run was completed, and with nine minutes on the clock, Auer led the field from Timo Glock, Audi drivers Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara and the BMW contingent formed by Marco Wittmann, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin and Tom Blomqvist.
Bruno Spengler left his first attempt for the second half of the session, making sure he had the track to himself, with the Canadian completing his first flying lap in 14th place. He then improved his time to make it into the top ten.
The final run started with just four minutes on the clock and everybody on track. Jamie Green shot to second place, before being overtaken y Gary Paffett and Bruno Spengler. Whilst most drivers improved their lap times, nobody could oust Lucas Auer form the first position.
With the chequered flag already out, most drivers improved their times to get into the top ten, such as Audi’s Miguel Molina and Mattias Ekström, and Mercedes AMG’s Daniel Juncadella.
When all the attempts were finished, Lucas Auer got his second pole position of the year and third of his DTM career, with a time of 1:22.728.
The BMW contingent formed by Marco Wittmann, Bruno Spengler, Tom Blomqvist and Augusto Farfus came next, with the standings leader trying his best to get pole position, but only managing to come 0.030 seconds near Auer.
Edoardo Mortara was sixth, 0.190 seconds off the pace, followed by fellow Audi drivers Jamie Green and Miguel Molina.
Daniel Juncadella was ninth for Mercedes AMG, with Mattias Ekström completing the top ten for Audi Sport.
Robert Wickens had again a difficult session, marked by the lack of running in free practice, and could only be 17th fastest, 0.454 seconds away from Auer. The Canadian faces an uphill task in today’s race to stay close in the fight for the title.
The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 15:13 CEST.
