Not only did Gary Paffett take his first clean sweep of pole positions under the current Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters weekend format, but the Briton was able to further extend his lead in the drivers’ standings to 130 points, after a dominant display in qualifying.
“The car’s been mega all weekend,” admitted the Suffolk-based driver, who secured an unchallenged lap time of a 1:30.225 around Circuit Park Zandvoort, with only Phillip Eng and defending champion René Rast getting within half a second of the 2005 champion.
“This morning, we made a few changes this morning based on yesterday’s race, and the car in qualifying was incredible.”
Paffett was at ease after securing the top spot on the grid for the race that marks the half way point of the 2018 campaign by 0.553 seconds, in comparison to yesterday’s qualifying efforts.
“On the first stint, I came out of the pits to do the first lap and felt comfortable, and felt that I didn’t have to do anything on the second run itself,” he alluded, saying that he knew that the first sector was critical to his lap time.
“It’s the first time that I’ve had two poles in a weekend, and I don’t think many others have done it, but it puts us in a good place for the race. Extremely happy.”