Moscow DTM: Paffett heads Mercedes 1-2-3-4 in wet Saturday qualifying

Paffett reigned supreme on the drying Volokolamsk track, storming to pole by more than half a second over teammate Robert Wickens.

While second practice on Saturday took place in wet conditions after heavy rainfall in the morning, the inclement weather had largely subsided in time for qualifying, although the surface remained moderately wet.

As such, the wet tyre was the preferred choice for the drivers for most of the session, inaugural Moscow Raceway DTM race winner Maxime Martin sitting atop the timesheets at halfway point with a time some 14 seconds off Friday practice pace.

His time was then bettered by Paffett, who improved to a 1m43.010s with less than five minutes to go and then to a 1m42.881s shortly thereafter.

The pace was increased dramatically in the final seconds of the session, with a number of cars gambling on slick tyres.

However, both Paffett and Wickens stuck to the wet compound and occupied the front row at the end, the Briton's pole time a 1m41.443s.

Paul di Resta and Maximilian Gotz, who both went with the slick gamble, took third and fourth - and were the final drivers within a second of Paffett.

Mattias Ekstrom was best of the rest for Audi in fifth, ahead of the lead BMW of Martin, Timo Scheider and Timo Glock.

Felix Rosenqvist was a superb ninth in his debut DTM qualifying, and will be joined on the fifth row by championship contender Jamie Green.

Green and fellow Audi title hopeful Edoardo Mortara in P12 will both get a shot at making up ground on points leader Marco Wittmann in Saturday's race, the BMW driver qualifying a subdued 20th.

Qualifying results

Pos.	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	2	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'41.443
2	6	Robert Wickens	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'42.048	0.605
3	3	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'42.130	0.687
4	84	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'42.164	0.721
5	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi RS5 DTM	1'42.450	1.007
6	36	Maxime Martin	BMW M4 DTM	1'42.506	1.063
7	10	Timo Scheider	Audi RS5 DTM	1'42.631	1.188
8	16	Timo Glock	BMW M4 DTM	1'42.631	1.188
9	88	Felix Rosenqvist	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'42.647	1.204
10	53	Jamie Green	Audi RS5 DTM	1'42.870	1.427
11	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi RS5 DTM	1'43.015	1.572
12	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi RS5 DTM	1'43.024	1.581
13	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.076	1.633
14	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.140	1.697
15	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.472	2.029
16	17	Miguel Molina	Audi RS5 DTM	1'43.500	2.057
17	51	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 DTM	1'43.521	2.078
18	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'43.660	2.217
19	100	Martin Tomczyk	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.830	2.387
20	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.856	2.413
21	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW M4 DTM	1'43.881	2.438
22	12	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'43.985	2.542
23	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 DTM	1'44.488	3.045
24	8	Christian Vietoris	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'44.800	3.357