Gary Paffett blasts the competition to take his third pole of the year
Mercedes AMG’s Gary Paffett continued his triumphant march at Zandvoort to score his second pole of the weekend and third this season, over four-tenths faster than BMW’s Philipp Eng in second place.
Paffett threw down the gauntlet early with a 1:30.225 on his first flying lap, half a second faster than yesterday’s pole position time.
Audi’s Robin Frijns’ session was cut short as the electrical issues that hampered the Dutch in this morning’s practice weren’t resolved, with Team Abt Sportsline opting to skip his second outing in the qualifying.
All cars bar Frijns’ RS 5 DTM returned to the track with five minutes to go for their final attempt.
Eng claimed second place, 0.446 seconds from pole. Audi’s René Rast was one of the few drivers able to improve in their final attempt to finish third, 0.491 seconds off the pace.
Wehrlein and his team-mate Paul di Resta followed, with Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller in sixth, 0.651 seconds off the pace. Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus were next for BMW Motorsport, with Mercedes AMG’s Edoardo Mortara and Lucas Auer completing the top ten. The Austrian started his final flying lap as the red lights came on, so his final attempt didn’t count.
BMW’s Joel Eriksson was late on the track as his M4 DTM was still being repaired after his off track excursion in this morning’s free practice. Eriksson managed three flying laps to qualify in 14th position, ahead of Audi’s Jamie Green and Nico Müller, and BMW’s Timo Glock, who was a full second slower than Paffett.
The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.
