Lausitz DTM: Auer snatches second career pole
Mercedes driver Lucas Auer took his second DTM pole in Sunday qualifying at the Lausitzring, improving in the final seconds of the session.
Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Team Mücke, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
Auer's pole was also Mercedes' second of the 2016 season - and the marque enjoyed a front row lockout to boot, with Christian Vietoris finishing 0.07s off.
The German, however, is subject of a stewards' investigation over blocking.
The Mercedes contingent led the early stages of the 20-minute session, with Maximilian Gotz emerging as best of the marque on a 1m17.227s.
However, he would be surpassed as the halfway point of qualifying approached, with BMW's Marco Wittmann taking over with a 1m17.061, while Timo Glock and the leading Audi of Mattias Ekstrom followed Gotz close in third and fourth.
During the mid-session lull, Bruno Spengler, running out of sequence with the rest of the pack, moved up to second, a tenth off fellow BMW DTM champion Wittmann.
With two minutes left on the clock, Robert Wickens improved from 17th to first with a 1m17.000s lap, with Gary Paffett ending up 0.030s adrift.
And the floodgates opened from that point on, Auer setting a 1m16.861s, with Vietoris and Glock also dipping below 1m17s.
Wickens looked to respond, setting a session-best S1 but losing time over the rest of the lap.
As such, it was pole for Auer, with Vietoris, Glock and Wickens making up the top four.
Mike Rockenfeller edged Paffett by 0.001s to end up as the lead Audi, with Jamie Green, Wittmann and Ekstrom all within half a tenth of Rockenfeller's time.
Tom Blomqvist made up the top 10, with yesterday's dominant winner Miguel Molina only 14th.
Qualifying results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
1 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 1:16.861 | |
2 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 1:16.931 | 0.070 |
3 | Timo Glock | BMW | 1:16.943 | 0.082 |
4 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 1:17.000 | 0.139 |
5 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 1:17.029 | 0.168 |
6 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 1:17.030 | 0.169 |
7 | Jamie Green | Audi | 1:17.044 | 0.183 |
8 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 1:17.061 | 0.200 |
9 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi | 1:17.076 | 0.215 |
10 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 1:17.142 | 0.281 |
11 | Maximilian Gotz | Mercedes | 1:17.147 | 0.286 |
12 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 1:17.162 | 0.301 |
13 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 1:17.167 | 0.306 |
14 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 1:17.184 | 0.323 |
15 | Nico Muller | Audi | 1:17.211 | 0.350 |
16 | Esteban Ocon | Mercedes | 1:17.219 | 0.358 |
17 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW | 1:17.399 | 0.538 |
18 | Dani Juncadella | Mercedes | 1:17.408 | 0.547 |
19 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 1:17.482 | 0.621 |
20 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 1:17.495 | 0.634 |
21 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes | 1:17.510 | 0.649 |
22 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 1:17.515 | 0.654 |
23 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 1:17.730 | 0.869 |
24 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 1:18.003 | 1.142 |
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