In a repeat of yesterday’s performance, Audi dominates today’s qualifying – locking out the first five positions on the grid. Marco Wittmann the best BMW again in sixth.
Audi has continuously shown been the team to beat this season. This is their eighth pole position of the year so far. Though, for Green, this is been his first in a long time. It’s kind of iconic to have him on pole for this afternoon’s race since he and BMW’s Bruno Spengler are the two most experienced drivers on the grid this year – this will be their 191st career race. Also, Green’s first-ever pole was at the Lausitzring as well, back in 2005.
“It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had a pole. So I’m extremely happy to show I still have the raw pace.” Said the Britafter the session. “It’s been a hard sort of last year and a half. So, to get a pole again is really good for the confidence. For me and the whole crew on my car. It’s just nice.”
Green set his time, a 1:35.397, in the first half of the session. Not many drivers were able to improve their times during the second half. However, WRT’s Jonathan Aberdein bucked the trend. From a provisional ninth he improved his time to a 1:35.498, which was enough for second place. The young South-African proves to be a great qualifier, as this isn’t the first time he will start from the front row on the grid.
Head of Audi Motorsport, Dieter Gass praises his two front-row starters: “I’m very happy for Jamie. 500th DTM race and he is on the pole. It’s been a long time I think that he hasn’t scored pole position. This morning he already said in an interview that he wanted to stick the car on pole. He did it, fantastic.” He continues about Aberdein: “But as well Jonathan Aberdein. It is the third time already that he’s in the front row on P2. Fantastic qualifying performance.”
The Audi pair who are fighting for the championship will line up alongside each other on the second row of the grid. Yesterday’s race winner Nico Mueller in third followed by Rast in fourth. Robin Frijns made it an all-Audi top five. Wittmann, who is currently third in the championship standings, will start from sixth and is hoping to repeat his start from yesterday.
Photo Credit: R-Motorsport Twitter
They are followed by another pair of Audi drivers – Loic Duval and Pietro Fittipaldi. The fifth row on the grid is for Timo Glock, who retired in yesterday’s race and Mike Rockenfeller. In positions 11 to 14, we find four more BMW’s before we have the R-Motorsport Aston Martin quartet from 15th to 18th. Today Paul di Resta is the highest-placed of the four, setting a time 1.158 seconds behind Green.
Just like yesterday, the race will start at 13.30 local time (12.30 UK time).
