Spengler surprises Mercedes to take Norisring pole
BMW driver Bruno Spengler ended Mercedes’s Norisring domination, taking pole for today’s DTM race.
Photo by: XPB Images
The session looked as if it was going to be another Mercedes lock-out, with Christian Vietoris and Robert Wickens sitting first and second as clock ran down on the 20-minute session.
But right at the flag Spengler made his move, jumping from P3 to pole with a last-gasp 48.280s – enough to knock Vietoris off top spot by just 0.004s.
Wickens hung on for P3, despite only improving by 0.005s on his second set of tyres, which he said cost him pole position.
“[I’m] disappointed,” Wickens said.
“I didn’t improve on the second set of tyres, and you need to. Luckily we didn’t go further back. I feel like I had the car for pole position.”
Mattias Ekstrom was the best Audi in fourth, ahead of Mercedes young guns Lucas Auer and Saturday race winner Pascal Wehrlein.
Jamie Green was seventh, ahead of fellow Brit Paul di Resta and second-fastest BMW driver Maxime Martin. Daniel Juncadella was next, making it six Mercedes in the Top 10.
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
1 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 48.280 | |
2 | C. Vietoris | Mercedes | 48.284 | 0.004 |
3 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 48.293 | 0.013 |
4 | Mattias Ekström | Audi | 48.401 | 0.121 |
5 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 48.422 | 0.142 |
6 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mercedes | 48.425 | 0.145 |
7 | Jamie Green | Audi | 48.445 | 0.165 |
8 | Paul Di Resta | Mercedes | 48.472 | 0.192 |
9 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 48.484 | 0.204 |
10 | D. Juncadella | Mercedes | 48.490 | 0.210 |
11 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 48.516 | 0.236 |
12 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 48.547 | 0.267 |
13 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 48.548 | 0.268 |
14 | Timo Glock | BMW | 48.559 | 0.279 |
15 | Nico Müller | Audi | 48.563 | 0.283 |
16 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes | 48.585 | 0.305 |
17 | A.F. da Costa | BMW | 48.610 | 0.330 |
18 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 48.620 | 0.340 |
19 | M.Rockenfeller | Audi | 48.671 | 0.391 |
20 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 48.719 | 0.439 |
21 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 48.767 | 0.487 |
22 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 48.815 | 0.535 |
23 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 48.878 | 0.598 |
24 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 48.905 | 0.625 |
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