Norisring DTM: Juncadella tops red-flagged qualifying
Daniel Juncadella took his maiden pole position in a red-flagged DTM qualifying at Norisring as Mercedes continued to dominate.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Despite not scoring points in Saturday's race, Audi had a strong start to the Sunday qualifying with Nico Muller, Loic Duval and Robin Frijns all taking turns out front in the early stages.
However, Mercedes soon took over with Gary Paffett becoming the first driver to set a sub-48s laptime, shortly followed by Paul di Resta and Edoardo Mortara.
Paffett still ended the first half of qualifying on top with a 47.739s, leading Saturday winner Mortara, di Resta and top BMW driver Marco Wittmann.
Di Resta and Lucas Auer both got close to demoting Paffett with only two minutes on the clock but it was another Mercedes driver, Juncadella, who eventually lowered the benchmark to a 47.705s.
Just as the Spaniard set his time, the session was red-flagged as Robin Frijns stopped in the escape zone of the Turn 1 hairpin.
Another minute was added to the clock, and as the qualifying restarted, drivers had time for two flying laps.
However, despite a few personal best sectors, nobody in the top 10 was able to improve and it was Juncadella celebrating his maiden DTM pole.
Paffett ended up second, 0.034s behind, with Auer, Di Resta and Mortara, who made small contact with the wall on his last lap, completing an all-Mercedes top five.
The second half of the top 10 was occupied by all BMWs, with Bruno Spengler leading the brand's efforts.
He beat Wittmann by 0.006s, as Joel Eriksson, Timo Glock and Philipp Eng took eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
Nico Muller led another disappointing session for Audi in 11th, with Jamie Green and Rene Rast grabbing 12th and 13th.
The final Mercedes of Pascal Wehrlein ended up last.
Qualifying 2 results
Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 47.705 | |
2 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 47.739 | 0.034 |
3 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 47.834 | 0.129 |
4 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 47.882 | 0.177 |
5 | Edoardo Mortara | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 47.886 | 0.181 |
6 | Bruno Spengler | BMW M4 DTM | 47.926 | 0.221 |
7 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 DTM | 47.932 | 0.227 |
8 | Joel Eriksson | BMW M4 DTM | 47.939 | 0.234 |
9 | Timo Glock | BMW M4 DTM | 47.963 | 0.258 |
10 | Philipp Eng | BMW M4 DTM | 47.997 | 0.292 |
11 | Nico Müller | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.023 | 0.318 |
12 | Jamie Green | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.123 | 0.418 |
13 | René Rast | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.235 | 0.530 |
14 | Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 DTM | 48.239 | 0.534 |
15 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.264 | 0.559 |
16 | Robin Frijns | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.291 | 0.586 |
17 | Loic Duval | Audi RS5 DTM | 48.357 | 0.652 |
18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 48.477 | 0.772 |
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