Norisring DTM: Mortara claims pole by 0.001s

Mortara deposed long-time provisional polesitter Phillip Eng by just 0.001s in the final flying lap of his second run, pulling into the pits with 90 seconds to go.

While waiting to see if he had secured pole, Eng's response provided a green middle sector on his last lap but it wasn't enough to depose Mortara.

Those times came in a flurry of late improvements after Rast's Audi got loose exiting the Scholler S and spun into the concrete wall of Turn 3, the crash extensively damaging the rear of his car.

With debris on the track, the session was delayed for around five minutes.

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann was third in a much improved qualifying performance compared to last time out in Hungary.

That put him ahead of title protagonist and Mercedes driver Gary Paffett in fourth.

Paul di Resta had regularly featured as a pole threat in the first stages of qualifying but dropped to fifth ahead of Dani Juncadella and Lucas Auer.

DTM points leader Timo Glock qualified in eighth ahead of Bruno Spengler.

Nico Muller was consistently the quickest Audi driver throughout the session and qualified in 10th, with Jamie Green in 13th and the other four Audis locking out the bottom positions.

Former Sauber Formula 1 driver Pascal Wehrlein slotted between the Audis of Green and Loic Duval in 14th.

Qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	47.843
2	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 DTM	47.844	0.001
3	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 DTM	47.866	0.023
4	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	47.872	0.029
5	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	47.899	0.056
6	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	47.919	0.076
7	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	47.934	0.091
8	Timo Glock	BMW M4 DTM	47.950	0.107
9	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 DTM	47.973	0.130
10	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 DTM	48.067	0.224
11	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 DTM	48.091	0.248
12	Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 DTM	48.098	0.255
13	Jamie Green	Audi RS5 DTM	48.221	0.378
14	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	48.253	0.410
15	Loic Duval	Audi RS5 DTM	48.301	0.458
16	Robin Frijns	Audi RS5 DTM	48.312	0.469
17	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 DTM	48.360	0.517
18	René Rast	Audi RS5 DTM	48.444	0.601