Zandvoort DTM: Wickens sees off Wittmann and Vietoris for pole
Mercedes driver Robert Wickens took his fourth pole position in the DTM in Saturday qualifying at Zandvoort.
Robert Wickens, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
The Canadian led home a Mercedes 1-3-4, with championship leader Marco Wittmann booking a front-row spot for BMW.
Wickens was the first driver to put in a representative time in the 20-minute session and his 1m31.482s was immediately better than the practice benchmark of Mercedes stablemate Gary Paffett.
Antonio Felix da Costa would soon go a tenth better than Wickens, the Portuguese driver's lap remaining good enough for provisional pole for much of the session.
However, as drivers went out for their second runs late on in the session, the pace was upped drastically.
First, Maximilian Gotz - who had spun rear-first into the barriers earlier in qualifying - deposed Felix da Costa by 0.001s, only for Adrien Tambay to go quicker - before Jamie Green posted the first sub-1m31s lap of the weekend at 1m30.953s.
Wittmann shaved a few hundredths off that time shortly thereafter, before Wickens lapped in a 1m30.727s that secure his pole position.
Christian Vietoris briefly moved up to second in the closing stages, only for Wittmann to retake the spot after the chequered flag, coming up 0.116s short of Wickens.
Paffett took fourth, ahead of leading Audi duo Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara, with Esteban Ocon seventh.
Felix da Costa, Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Glock made up the top 10.
Qualifying results
Pos. | Driver | Voiture | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 1'30.727 | |
2 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 1'30.843 | 0.116 |
3 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 1'30.857 | 0.130 |
4 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 1'30.947 | 0.220 |
5 | Jamie Green | Audi | 1'30.953 | 0.226 |
6 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 1'31.099 | 0.372 |
7 | Esteban Ocon | Mercedes | 1'31.144 | 0.417 |
8 | António Félix da Costa | BMW | 1'31.149 | 0.422 |
9 | Mattias Ekström | Audi | 1'31.164 | 0.437 |
10 | Timo Glock | BMW | 1'31.173 | 0.446 |
11 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 1'31.217 | 0.490 |
12 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 1'31.281 | 0.554 |
13 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes | 1'31.327 | 0.600 |
14 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 1'31.341 | 0.614 |
15 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes | 1'31.389 | 0.662 |
16 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 1'31.395 | 0.668 |
17 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 1'31.626 | 0.899 |
18 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 1'31.665 | 0.938 |
19 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 1'31.672 | 0.945 |
20 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes | 1'31.725 | 0.998 |
21 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 1'31.741 | 1.014 |
22 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 1'31.822 | 1.095 |
23 | Nico Müller | Audi | 1'31.872 | 1.145 |
24 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 1'31.911 | 1.184 |
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