BMW’s Marco Wittmann took his first-ever pole position in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, beating stablemate Augusto Farfus to the fastest time.
Click here for the full Round 9 qualifying results.
Team MTEK’s Wittmann, who has previously qualified on the front row of the grid at the Red Bull Ring and the Nürburgring, was inside the top seven throughout qualifying. The young German then went on to post a time 0.085 seconds quicker than Farfus in the final Q4 shoot-out, to take his and his team’s first-ever pole in the series.
Farfus, who is aiming to close the gap to championship leader Mike Rockenfeller this weekend, was on the pace throughout the qualifying session. The Brazilian was quickest of all in Q1 and Q3, and third fastest in Q2. However he had no answer for Wittmann’s pace in Q4.
Audi’s Rockenfeller was third fastest to keep the pressure on Farfus, although the German was disappointed to have not had the of his main rival. His stablemate Timo Scheider competed the top four with his best qualifying result since the season opener. The former champion ran wide at the Mastersbocht turn, costing him valuable time on his Q4 run.
American Joey Hand qualified his BMW in fifth, ahead of the Rosberg Audi’s of Filipe Albuquerque in sixth and Edoardo Mortara in seventh.
Completing the top ten were BMW’s Timo Glock and Audi’s Adrien Tambay and Miguel Molina. For Glock, eighth is his best qualifying result since he joined the DTM at the start of the year.
Audi’s Mattias Ekström missed out on entry to Q3 for the fifth time this season and qualified in 11th position. Ekström once again beat his British team-mate Jamie Green in qualifying, with Green being knocked out in Q1 and forced to start from 17th position.
No Mercedes-Benz drivers made it into the top ten for the second time in 2013, with Gary Paffett the fastest driver for the Silver Arrows in 12th.
BMW Team RMG’s Andy Priaulx made it through to Q2 for just the third time this season and qualified in 15th. Outgoing champion Bruno Spengler qualified in 16th after a disappointing qualifying. The Canadian will start from 18th in Sunday’s race due to the two-place grid penalty he received from the previous round at Oschersleben for contact with Robert Wickens.
Mercedes’ poor qualifying form was emphasised by four of its drivers being knocked out in Q1, including former championship contenders Christian Vietoris (17th) and Wickens (21st).
Round 9 of the DTM takes place at 13:33 CEST on Sunday (12:33 BST) and will be broadcast LIVE at TouringCars.Net.