Daniel Juncadella takes first career pole position at the Norisring
Daniel Juncadella took his first ever pole position in the DTM, leading a Mercedes AMG 1-2-3-4-5 at the Norisring, with the Stuttgart-based cars separated by less than two-tenths of a second.
The session had to be red-flagged after seven minutes due to debris on the track, with no other significant incidents.
Gary Paffett was second, just 0.034 seconds from pole. The Briton was investigated for allegedly blocking BMW’s Marco Wittmann, with no further action taken. Lucas Auer was third, followed by Paul di Resta and yesterday’s winner Edoardo Mortara.
BMW Motorsport took the following five positions to complete the top ten, with Bruno Spengler in sixth, 0.221 seconds behind Juncadella. Wittmann, Joel Eriksson, Timo Glock and Philipp Eng were next, with the Austrian 0.291 seconds off the pace.
Audi Sport continued to struggle with Nico Müller in 11th the fastest driver of an RS 5 DTM, with ‘Mr. Norisring’ Jamie Green immediately behind him.
Juncadella said: “I finally get a proper qualifying, after so many years in the first two rows. The car felt really good I want to thank my team and my guys because they gave me a super strong car and it’s great to have this reward. Now we need to get good points for the championship. It’s great to get pole in one of the nicest cities for the DTM, let’s fight from there.”
The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.
