Photo: Hankook Tire

Lucas Auer takes his second pole of the season at the Lausitzring

By

Mercedes AMG’s Lucas Auer asserted his dominance at the Lausitzring, taking pole position for today’s Race 1 after a close fight with team-mate Robert Wickens.

BMW’s Timo Glock was the first to set a reference time, followed by Mercedes AMG’s Gary Paffett and Robert Wickens. Audi Team Rosberg drivers Jamie Green and René Rast completed an installation lap to return to the pits for new tyres.

Rast returned to the track to set the best lap of the weekend so far with a time of 1:16.513, followed closely by Mercedes AMG drivers Lucas Auer and Robert Wickens.

The bumpy state of the track caused some problems for the drivers, with Audi’s Loic Duval and Jamie Green going wide at Turn 3 and 9 respectively and Mercedes AMG’s Paul Di Resta almost touching the outside wall in the banking coming into the main straight.

Frenzy was the word for the final five minutes of the session, with all cars on the track. Robert Wickens took the first position, quickly beaten by fellow Mercedes driver Lucas Auer. René Rast improved to fourth, with BMW’s Timo Glock and Tom Blomqvist next.

BMW’s Maxime Martin rose to third, whilst Audi’s Nico Müller climbed to seventh after touching the wall at the banking.

Lucas Auer took his second pole position of the season, followed by Wickens and Martin. René Rast was the fastest man for Audi Sport in fourth place, 0.227 seconds behind the Austrian.

Timo Glock was fifth, with Tom Blomqvist and Audi’s Nico Müller and Mike Rockenfeller next. Mercedes AMG drivers Gary Paffett and Edoardo Mortara completed the top ten, with the Italian just 0.349 seconds behind the pole.

Reigning champion Marco Wittmann was 11th, just ahead of Jamie Green, who couldn’t get his strategy to work for him. The entire field was separated by just 0.904 seconds, with minimal differences between the drivers

Robert Wickens: “My lap was good, but Luky is on fire this weekend, so I need to find a bit more performance for the race.”

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for 14:48 CET.