Championship leader Gary Paffett has taken pole position in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Norisring, as Mercedes-Benz secured a front-row lock out thanks to Jamie Green in second.
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Paffett was never lower than fourth during the session, eventually posting a time of 49.139 seconds to take his second pole position of the season in Q4. Fellow Brit Green, who is coloquially referred to as ‘Mr. Norisring’ in deference to his three previous victories around the Nürnberg circuit, was just 0.032 seconds further back.
Brazilian Augusto Farfus made it through to the final shootout for the second time in his maiden DTM season, eventually qulifying in third for BMW. Swede Mattias Ekström, who had been the fastest driver of all in Q2 and Q3, could only manage fourth in the decisive shootout session at the end.
Ralf Schumacher, 37 today, qualified in fifth and missed out on the final part of qualifying by 0.057 seconds. Alongside the German on the third row of the grid will be reigning champion Martin Tomczyk.
BMW’s top driver in the championship, Bruno Spengler, qualified in seventh. The Canadian is racing this weekend with a white roof on his BMW M3 to combat the hot temperatures in the south of Germany. He will have young Mercedes pilot Christian Vietoris alongside him on the starting grid for tomorrow’s race.
After his suspension failure in practice, Andy Priaulx had a strong qualifying session on his way to ninth. The former WTCC star will have the DTM’s newest race winner, Edoardo Mortara, alongside him in 10th.
David Coulthard took his best qualifying result of the year in 14th; indeed it is the first time that the Mercedes driver has made it into Q2 in 2012.
The qualifying session proved to be a disaster for former double champion Timo Scheider – the German qualified only 21st after a problematic session.
Round 5 of the 2012 DTM takes place at 1333 Berlin time (1233 GMT) on Sunday 1st July 2012.