For the first time this season, spectators are welcome at this weekend’s DTM round at Assen. Audi led the way in Friday’s two practise sessions, while this morning, Loic Duval took pole position for the first race of the weekend. Championship leader Nico Mueller qualified third with Lucas Auer as the best BMW in seventh.
Loic Duval has had a cracking start to his weekend. The Frenchman set the pace in yesterday’s first practice session. leading an Audi 1-2-3-4 with Mueller following close behind. Duval’s best time was 1:24.293 seconds, which is already faster than last year’s pole time. The track has been resurfaced this season, so there’s a lot of grip but is also hard on the tyres. Most drivers were focusing on long-runs, so no real improvements towards the end of the session.
The second practice session was much the same. Audi occupied the top four once again, with Dutchman Robin Frijns leading the way with a 1:23.547 – seven-tenths faster than Duval’s time in FP1. Mueller was second, followed by Duval in third and Rast in fourth. Again, most drivers were doing long-runs, trying out strategies and practising their tyre management.
This morning’s qualifying session started with clear skies. But, by the end, dark clouds were beginning to loom and there is a high chance of rain later in the race today.
In the first half of qualifying, BMW’s Lucas Auer set the pace. However, soon after the Audis started improving and took the top spots with Frijns leading ahead of Mueller and Rast. With five minutes to go, pretty much all drivers headed out for their second runs.
In the final minute of the session, Duval claimed the top spot with a 1:23.341, two tenths faster than yesterday’s best time. It’s his second career pole. Frijns, who is the best qualifier this year with four pole positions so far, finished second – 0.034 seconds behind the Audi Team Phoenix driver. Championship leader Mueller will start from third on the grid, ahead of WRT’s Ferdinand Habsburg. Another pair of Audi drivers in fifth and sixth – Mike Rockenfeller and reigning champion Rast, who made a mistake on his last attempt, cutting the final chicane.
Best of the BMW’s was last race’ winner Auer in seventh. Completing the top ten are Philipp Eng, Jonathan Aberdein and Marco Wittmann, the latter with a gap of 0.798 seconds to Duval.
‘This year the Abt [Sportsline] guys were really competitive in qualifying so far’, commented Duval after the session. ‘So, today I’m quite happy. The pole position is always important. First as a reward, for the work and to start at the front. But here with the tyre degradation, we saw yesterday, gave so many troubles for the long distance. I would rather prefer to have a super consistent car but slow, instead of a quick one which has big tyre deg.’
The first race of the weekend will start at 13.30 local time (12.30 UK time)
