Misano DTM: Duval scores maiden pole in wet qualifying

Audi's Loic Duval took his maiden pole position in DTM, beating Edoardo Mortara by three tenths at a wet Misano.

Like on Saturday, qualifying was again held in wet conditions, with the benchmark gradually lowered as the session went on.

It was Nico Muller setting the early pace of 1m49.764s, but Lucas Auer entered the 1m48s range a minute later, before Mortara reached the 1m47s, and subsequently the 1m46s, in the second half of qualifying.

The latter was a huge improvement from Mortara as he went six tenths faster than previous leader Duval, then lowering the benchmark by a further half a second.

Still, this was not enough for pole as Duval fought back, narrowly edging Mortara out with a 1m45.983s.

The Frenchman looked set to take first place as improvements were scarce during the last two minutes, but he improved one more time regardless, securing his maiden DTM pole with a gap of 0.320s.

Mortara claimed second ahead of fellow Mercedes driver Daniel Juncadella, who ended his session by crashing into the wall at Turn 2.

Audi pair Mike Rockenfeller and Rene Rast were fourth and fifth respectively, with Marco Wittmann leading BMW's efforts in sixth, 0.922s off the pace.

Nico Muller featured in the lead in the early stages but in the end had to settle for seventh.

Points leader Gary Paffett only took eighth but will still start two places ahead of title rival Paul di Resta, as the British duo sandwiched ninth-placed Timo Glock.

BMW wildcard Alex Zanardi was 19th, 4.4s off pole.

Qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Loic Duval	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1'45.766
2	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	10	1'46.086	0.320
3	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1'46.496	0.730
4	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1'46.545	0.779
5	René Rast	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1'46.635	0.869
6	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'46.688	0.922
7	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 DTM	12	1'46.762	0.996
8	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1'46.774	1.008
9	Timo Glock	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'46.801	1.035
10	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1'46.926	1.160
11	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1'47.103	1.337
12	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'47.302	1.536
13	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	11	1'47.313	1.547
14	Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'47.442	1.676
15	Robin Frijns	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1'47.802	2.036
16	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'47.886	2.120
17	Jamie Green	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1'48.266	2.500
18	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 DTM	11	1'48.315	2.549
19	Alessandro Zanardi	BMW M4 DTM	10	1'50.207	4.441