Jamie Green takes his first pole of 2017 at the Red Bull Ring
Audi Sport driver Jamie Green has continued his dominating form this weekend, taking pole position for this afternoon’s race at the Red Bull Ring, in a session where the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer gave no ground to their rivals.
Team Rosberg’s Green placed himself in first position just before the halfway mark of the session, when all cars returned to the pits for final adjustments and new tyres. Mercedes’ Edoardo Mortara caused a yellow flag going wide at Turn 7 and jumping on the curbs on the run off area. Team-mate Lucas Auer went sideways in the braking zone towards Turn 2, ruining his first flying lap.
Team Abt Sportsline drivers started the final attempts, with Nico Müller and Mattias Ekström taking the first two positions. Green tried to come back but a mistake exiting Turn 2 damaged his attempt, climbing to second position by only four-thousandths. The Briton improved on his next lap, taking the pole position with a lap time of 1:21.973.
Müller was second, unable to improve in his last attempt, with Ekström in third. Marco Wittmann performed the miracle for BMW in fourth position, with the top four separated by less than a tenth of a second.
Audi drivers and championship contenders Mike Rockenfeller and René Rast followed, with Rast, who races at the Red Bull Ring for the first time in his DTM career, nearly three-tenths off the pace.
Robert Wickens was the best placed driver for Mercedes in seventh, followed by the BMWs of Maxime Martin, Timo Glock and Augusto Farfus completing the top ten.
The second stint of the session didn’t work for the Mercedes squad, with Lucas Auer unable to improve to finish 12th for the first of his home races.
The session was very close, with the entire field separated by nine-tenths of a second.
