Augusto Farfus charges to late pole for Zandvoort race one

This afternoon’s qualifying session for today’s race one for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at Circuit Park Zandvoort saw BMW’s Augusto Farfus secure pole position in the last 90 seconds.

The Brazilian posted the fastest time after 20 minutes of action, with a 1:31.266, leading a BMW top four whitewash on a track that the Munich manufacturer has been successful at over the past three years.

Farfus, who won at the Dutch track back in 2013, was just 0.008 seconds faster than defending champion Marco Wittmann and Team Schnitzer’s António Félix da Costa, with the Team RMG driver having set the time earlier in the session.

Belgium’s Maxime Martin rounded out the top four, ahead of lead Mercedes driver Gary Paffett, who had led for the majority of the session before being knocked down in the dying seconds. The Brit would be the only Stuttgart driver that made it into the top ten.

Current points leader Jamie Green was fastest again for Audi Sport, as the Brit was sixth fastest, 0,361 seconds off the pole setter. It was a difficult time for Audi again, as Team Abt Sportsline’s Miguel Molina was the only other Ingolstadt driver to make into the top ten.

Behind the Spaniard, who aborted his last lap by going wide, Adrien Tambay, Edoardo Mortara and 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller took the next three places, ahead of BMW’s Martin Tomczyk and Norisring race one winner, Pascal Wehrlein.

Green’s team mate at Team Rosberg, Nico Müller, will line up 16th, with two-time champions Mattias Ekström and Timo Scheider starting from 19th and 21st.

Team MTEK were hunting for some good results at Zandvoort, as both Timo Glock and Bruno Spengler waited patiently until the latter part of the session to set their times. The pair ended up seventh and ninth respectively, split by Farfus’ stable mate at Team RBM, Tom Blomqvist, who was the fastest of the rookies.

Due to the performance weights that Mercedes carried into this weekend after the dominant success at Norisring a fortnight ago, it hit them hard this afternoon, in terms of sheer one-lap pace. Both Daniel Juncadella and Maximillian Götz will line up on the back row of the grid for the sprint race this afternoon.

Christian Vietoris and Robert Wickens will start from 17th and 18th on the grid, with Lucas Auer 20th, whilst Paul Di Resta will start alongside Scheider in 22nd, with Scot suffering an off-track excursion with just under thirty seconds left on the clock.

The ex-Force India F1 driver was still able to make it back to pit lane under the car’s own power, following assistance from race marshals.

Race one will start at 1803 CEST (1703 BST) this afternoon.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	6	1:31.266	0.000
2	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	8	1:31.274	0.008
3	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	8	1:31.274	0.008
4	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	7	1:31.363	0.097
5	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	8	1:31.570	0.304
6	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	8	1:31.627	0.361
7	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	8	1:31.647	0.381
8	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	7	1:31.650	0.384
9	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	8	1:31.656	0.390
10	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	6	1:31.668	0.402
11	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	7	1:31.686	0.420
12	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	8	1:31.701	0.435
13	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	6	1:31.735	0.469
14	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	7	1:31.758	0.492
15	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	7	1:31.775	0.509
16	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	7	1:31.783	0.517
17	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	7	1:31.855	0.589
18	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1:31.855	0.589
19	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	8	1:32.005	0.739
20	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	7	1:32.141	0.875
21	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	8	1:32.215	0.949
22	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	4	1:32.251	0.985
23	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	7	1:32.264	0.998
24	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	3	1:32.564	1.298

Complete session results