Qualifying report
DTM Norisring
Norisring DTM: Muller smashes lap record for pole
Audi driver Nico Muller set a new qualifying lap record at the Norisring to secure pole position for Saturday's opening race.
Jack Cozens
Edited: Jul 6, 2019, 11:09 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Muller, who scored the second victory of his DTM career at the previous Misano round, achieved his second series pole position with a 46.337s lap of the 1.43-mile circuit set during his first qualifying run.
That effort was more than nine tenths faster than the previous qualifying record - a 47.252s set by Tom Blomqvist in 2017 - and gave Muller pole 0.075 seconds from BMW's Phillip Eng.
Eng, who is BMW's leading hope in the drivers' championship, split the Audi RS5s of Muller and second practice pace-setter Loic Duval with a 46.412s lap towards the end of his first run in the 20-minute qualifying session.
He will start fifth, however, after being docked three positions for blocking another car in qualifying, while Duval and Phoenix Audi teammate Mike Rockenfeller were excluded for breaching parc ferme regulations.
That means BMW's Bruno Spengler will start second, as the 2012 champion's 46.492s lap, which briefly stood as the fastest time, gave him fourth in the provisional qualifying order.
Audi's championship leader Rene Rast will start third ahead of Joel Eriksson, with Eng and Marco Wittmann next up.
The privateer WRT Audi RS5 of Jonathan Aberdein is seventh on the grid after he set a time that was 0.280s away from Muller's, ahead of Jamie Green - who is returning this weekend after missing the Misano round as he recovered from an operation.
Daniel Juncadella was one of a handful of drivers to improve on his second qualifying run, with his 46.893s effort lifting him to 13th to ensure the final four places in the qualifying order were not occupied by R-Motorsport's four Aston Martin Vantages.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Electric switch would be against DTM's DNA - Berger
Next article Norisring DTM: Rast takes unlikely last-to-first win
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jack Cozens
Hamilton secures BTCC return with Team Hard
BTCC
BTCC
Hamilton secures BTCC return with Team Hard
Ekstrom joins Cupra for first Pure ETCR season
ETCR
ETCR
Ekstrom joins Cupra for first Pure ETCR season
Huff announces he won't race in WTCR in 2020
WTCR
WTCR
Huff announces he won't race in WTCR in 2020
More from
Nico Müller
Laurin Heinrich replaces Laurens Vanthoor at Porsche Penske for IMSA Indy round
IMSA
IMSA
Laurin Heinrich replaces Laurens Vanthoor at Porsche Penske for IMSA Indy round
Porsche’s Jeddah dip raises questions as Pascal Wehrlein insists ‘nothing changed’
Formula E
Formula E
Jeddah ePrix II
Porsche’s Jeddah dip raises questions as Pascal Wehrlein insists ‘nothing changed’
Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Muller join Porsche line-up for WEC Spa 6 Hours
WEC
WEC
Spa
Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Muller join Porsche line-up for WEC Spa 6 Hours
Latest news
FIA ratifies key 2027 WRC sporting regulations
WRC
WRC WRC 1 h
FIA ratifies key 2027 WRC sporting regulations
Toprak Razgatlioglu to miss the rest MotoGP season due to shoulder injury
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 h
Toprak Razgatlioglu to miss the rest MotoGP season due to shoulder injury
MotoGP teams told Qatar Grand Prix expected to go ahead
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
MotoGP teams told Qatar Grand Prix expected to go ahead
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe