BMW’s Bruno Spengler took his third pole position of the season in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters qualifying session at Oschersleben, beating title rivals Gary Paffett and Jamie Green.
Click here for the full qualifying results.
Canadian Spengler was just 0.086 seconds faster than main title rival, Brit Paffett. Third place on the grid went to Green, who is also in contention for the overall title. An impressive performance from Spenglers BMW Team Schnitzer team-mate Dirk Werner saw the German post the fourth fastest time – his best qualifying since the season opener.
“I am very happy with that,” said Spengler after securing his 14th DTM pole position. “Today has been sensational again. I am obviously very proud of my third pole position of the season. My car was really quick and I drove a flawless lap. That gives us a great base on which to build tomorrow.
“However, you certainly cannot take the race for granted. In claiming pole I have only done half of the job – my rivals will be doing everything in their power to make my life as difficult as possible. The first corner is sure to be a tight affair. I expect a tough race, but it is looking very good at the moment.”
Former double champion Mattias Ekström was the best Audi driver in fifth, ahead of reigning champion Martin Tomczyk. Next up was the Audi trio of Edoardo Mortara in seventh, Mike Rockenfeller in eighth and Miguel Molina in ninth. Completing the top ten was Brazilian BMW driver Augusto Farfus.
The first part of qualifying saw little drama, with Andy Priaulx and Ralf Schumacher the only drivers to make brief excursions off the track into the gravel as they pushed for lap times. Spengler ended Q1 with the fastest time, proving his potential around the twisty circuit.
There was little drama in Q2 either, as Tomczyk ended the session as the fastest driver overall. Missing out on the top ten shoot-out were Ralf Schumacher (11), Andy Priaulx (12), Robert Wickens (13), Filipe Albuquerque (14), Timo Scheider (15) and Christian Vietoris (16) respectively.
In Q3 it was Werner’s time to post the fastest lap, ensuring that a BMW driver topped every part of qualifying. Indeed Werner’s time of 1:20.632 would prove to be the fastest time of the entire session.
Round8 of the 2012 DTM takes place at 14:00 CET on Sunday 16th September.