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Qualifying report

Zandvoort DTM: Paffett dominates Sunday qualifying

Mercedes driver Gary Paffett extended his advantage at the top of the DTM standings as he topped Sunday qualifying at Zandvoort.

Gary Paffett, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM

Gary Paffett, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM

Alexander Trienitz

Gary Paffett, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA
Pole position for Gary Paffett, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA
Gary Paffett, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Philipp Eng, BMW Team RBM
Philipp Eng, BMW Team RBM, BMW M4 DTM
René Rast, Audi Sport Team Rosberg, Audi RS 5 DTM
René Rast, Audi Sport Team Rosberg, Audi RS 5 DTM

The Briton thoroughly dominated the session en route to his second pole position of the weekend, having converted first place on the grid into victory on Saturday.

Paffett logged comfortably the best effort of the weekend with his very first flying lap in the 20-minute session, a 1m30.225s putting him almost half a second clear of his nearest rival, BMW's Philipp Eng.

His advantage held until the second runs, and while Paffett himself was unable to improve, his pole came under no threat.

Eng's initial effort was good enough to keep him on the front row, although Audi's defending champion Rene Rast came within half a tenth of demoting the Austrian.

Rast had not set a representative time on his first run but shot up the order late on, his effort meaning that the top three on the grid will feature all three of DTM's manufacturers for the first time in 2018.

Pascal Wehrlein was fourth, having had a trip through the gravel at the Tarzan left-hander after setting his best laptime early on, while Mercedes stablemate Paul di Resta slotted in behind in fifth place.

Mike Rockenfeller made it two Audis in the top six, ahead of BMW duo Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus and Mercedes pair Edoardo Mortara and Lucas Auer.

Joel Eriksson, who struck the barriers with his BMW after going off in Sunday morning practice, made it out of the pits with five minutes to spare in qualifying, and took 14th place.

He was three spots ahead of Timo Glock, BMW's lead driver in the points standings.

Audi's Robin Frijns had also hit trouble in FP3, pulling over to the side of the road with what Audi believed was an electrical issue.

He headed out for an initial run in qualifying, but did not emerge for a second time and finished last.

Session results:

Pos.#DriverCarTimeGap
1 2 united_kingdom Gary Paffett Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.225  
2 25 austria Philipp Eng BMW M4 DTM 1'30.671 0.446
3 33 germany René Rast Audi RS5 DTM 1'30.716 0.491
4 94 germany Pascal Wehrlein Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.774 0.549
5 3 united_kingdom Paul di Resta Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.810 0.585
6 99 germany Mike Rockenfeller Audi RS5 DTM 1'30.876 0.651
7 7 canada Bruno Spengler BMW M4 DTM 1'30.908 0.683
8 15 brazil Augusto Farfus BMW M4 DTM 1'30.942 0.717
9 48 italy Edoardo Mortara Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.944 0.719
10 22 austria Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.948 0.723
11 23 spain Daniel Juncadella Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'30.954 0.729
12 11 germany Marco Wittmann BMW M4 DTM 1'30.955 0.730
13 28 france Loic Duval Audi RS5 DTM 1'30.992 0.767
14 47 sweden Joel Eriksson BMW M4 DTM 1'31.069 0.844
15 53 united_kingdom Jamie Green Audi RS5 DTM 1'31.095 0.870
16 51 switzerland Nico Müller Audi RS5 DTM 1'31.105 0.880
17 16 germany Timo Glock BMW M4 DTM 1'31.233 1.008
18 4 netherlands Robin Frijns Audi RS5 DTM 1'31.528 1.303

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