Lausitz DTM: Eng beats Wehrlein to score maiden pole
BMW rookie Philipp Eng took pole position for the second race of the DTM weekend at the Lausitzring, narrowly beating ex-Sauber Formula 1 driver Pascal Wehrlein.
Eng – who led Saturday’s race after missing out on pole by just 0.007s and eventually finished third behind winner Edoardo Mortara and Timo Glock – set a blistering lap of 1m38.150s in the first runs.
Unlike in Saturday qualifying, drivers struggled to improve on their final runs this time and Eng bailed out of his final lap when his pole was confirmed.
Mercedes driver Wehrlein took his best qualifying spot so far on his return with second, having been one of the few drivers to improve in the final shootout which duly kicked off with four minutes left in the session.
Wehrlein – the 2015 series champion – was just 0.026s adrift of Eng, with a rejuvenated Gary Paffett in third place.
Paffett's first run was good enough – despite a wild sideways moment at Turn 7 – to put him on the second row alongside BMW’s 2014 and 2016 champion Marco Wittmann.
Audi's Mike Rockenfeller looked set to challenge for pole on his second run thanks to a best overall first sector and a strong middle, but the last sector let him down.
He had to settle for fifth, albeit outperforming the next best Audi by eight positions.
Saturday's winner Mortara will start one spot higher than he did in Race 1 after placing sixth, while BMW rookie Joel Eriksson heads Lucas Auer on row four.
Daniel Juncadella finally made a breakthrough in qualifying having struggled to switch his tyres on so far this season, and took ninth for Mercedes ahead of Saturday’s second-place man Timo Glock.
Ex-Force India and Williams Formula 1 driver Paul di Resta was the biggest shock of the session, only managing 15th out of 17 cars, as Audis made up the rest of the bottom five spots.
Session results
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |  Philipp Eng | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1'38.150 | |
| 2 | 94 |  Pascal Wehrlein | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 9 | 1'38.176 | 0.026 |
| 3 | 2 |  Gary Paffett | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 8 | 1'38.218 | 0.068 |
| 4 | 11 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1'38.283 | 0.133 |
| 5 | 99 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1'38.376 | 0.226 |
| 6 | 48 |  Edoardo Mortara | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 8 | 1'38.538 | 0.388 |
| 7 | 47 |  Joel Eriksson | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1'38.556 | 0.406 |
| 8 | 22 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 10 | 1'38.566 | 0.416 |
| 9 | 23 |  Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 8 | 1'38.658 | 0.508 |
| 10 | 16 | Timo Glock | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1'38.673 | 0.523 |
| 11 | 7 |  Bruno Spengler | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1'38.675 | 0.525 |
| 12 | 15 |  Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1'38.710 | 0.560 |
| 13 | 51 |  Nico Müller | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1'38.743 | 0.593 |
| 14 | 4 |  Robin Frijns | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1'38.756 | 0.606 |
| 15 | 3 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 9 | 1'38.853 | 0.703 |
| 16 | 53 | Jamie Green | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1'38.874 | 0.724 |
| 17 | 28 |  Loic Duval | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1'38.884 | 0.734 |
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About this article
| Series | DTM |
| Event | Lausitzring |
| Location | EuroSpeedway Lausitz |
| Drivers | Philipp Eng , Pascal Wehrlein , Gary Paffett |
| Author | Jack Benyon |
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