Hockenheim DTM: Martin bags pole as title contenders struggle

BMW driver Martin deposed Miguel Molina from the top spot with just over five minutes to run in the 20-minute session, setting a time of 1m32.637s to edge out the Audi driver by just under a tenth.

Nobody else was able to top Martin's time for the remainder, Audi's Timo Scheider coming closest with a 1m32.711s in the dying stages to bump teammate Molina down to third.

Paul di Resta had topped the timesheets early on but slumped to fourth as the session progressed, four hundredths slower than Molina, nonetheless ending up as top Mercedes driver.

Audi duo Jamie Green and Mike Rockenfeller completed the top half-dozen, with Mattias Ekstrom the best of the title contenders in seventh.

Edoardo Mortara, who is a point ahead of Ekstrom in the standings but 37 behind Pascal Wehrlein, starts behind the Swede in ninth, one place behind Tom Blomqvist and one ahead of Lucas Auer.

Wehrlein, meanwhile, struggled to hook up a consistent lap, his best effort at one stage putting him ninth, but his failure to improve on his last flyer eventually left the points leader down in 13th.

The fourth and final title contender Bruno Spengler had a disastrous session, abandoning his last lap and winding up down in 18th.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Maxime Martin	BMW	1'32.637
2	Timo Scheider	Audi	1'32.711	0.074
3	Miguel Molina	Audi	1'32.726	0.089
4	Paul Di Resta	Mercedes	1'32.766	0.129
5	Jamie Green	Audi	1'32.790	0.153
6	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi	1'32.793	0.156
7	Mattias Ekström	Audi	1'32.795	0.158
8	Tom Blomqvist	BMW	1'32.808	0.171
9	Edoardo Mortara	Audi	1'32.820	0.183
10	Lucas Auer	Mercedes	1'32.828	0.191
11	Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW	1'32.847	0.210
12	Gary Paffett	Mercedes	1'32.889	0.252
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes	1'32.892	0.255
14	Augusto Farfus	BMW	1'32.905	0.268
15	Adrien Tambay	Audi	1'32.989	0.352
16	Marco Wittmann	BMW	1'33.041	0.404
17	Maximilian Gotz	Mercedes	1'33.072	0.435
18	Bruno Spengler	BMW	1'33.089	0.452
19	Robert Wickens	Mercedes	1'33.165	0.528
20	Nico Muller	Audi	1'33.283	0.646
21	Timo Glock	BMW	1'33.382	0.745
22	Martin Tomczyk	BMW	1'33.407	0.770
23	Dani Juncadella	Mercedes	1'33.511	0.874
24	Christian Vietoris	Mercedes	1'33.531	0.894