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Marco Wittmann claimed pole position for the DTM race at the Nürburgring on Sunday. Thus, the 27-year-old BMW driver once again underlined his strong qualifying performance this season.

On his fastest lap (1m20.936s), Wittmann was the only driver to post a sub 1m21s time and ended up ahead of the two Mercedes-AMG drivers Paul Di Resta and Robert Wickens, who were second and third respectively.

"Today, the most difficult thing was getting the tyres to their working temperature with an outside temperature of ten degrees." Said Wittmann

"One can always be happy with a pole position. At the end, we did everything right. Today, there was no rain gamble and no poker games."

"I am happy to be in first place. Yesterday, I was on the front row and today, I am starting even further up to the front. That is an optimal situation. Now, I hope that the rain will stay away, or that conditions are really clear."

 

Lucas Auer, who dominated qualifying at the circuit in the Eifel in the past three years, didn’t do any better than fourth place and took the final slot on the second row of the grid.

BMW and Mercedes-AMG decided the battle for the best starting grid positions in dry conditions among themselves.

Tom Blomqvist, Timo Glock and Augusto Farfus ended up in fifth to seventh place. Gary Paffett (Mercedes-AMG), Bruno Spengler (BMW) and Edoardo Mortara (Mercedes-AMG) rounded out the top ten.

Jamie Green was the best-placed driver with an Audi RS 5 DTM. The Brit was 0.550 seconds short of Wittmann’s fastest time.

 

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Lucas Auer is back in the game in the battle for the DTM title. In the 13th race of the DTM season, the Mercedes-AMG driver drove from pole position to victory in adverse conditions at the Nürburgring and thus moved up from sixth to second in the drivers’ standings.

For Auer, it was the fourth race win of his DTM career and his third of the current season. Auer wasn’t the only one who brought the three-pointed star to the fore in the Eifel: in second to fourth place, Paul Di Resta, Robert Wickens and Maro Engel completed the success for the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team.

“It was a mega race for us,” a delighted Auer said at the finish. “After my pit stop, I was a bit confused, but our strategy worked out in the difficult conditions.”

Behind the Mercedes quartet, René Rast finished as the best-placed Audi driver in fifth ahead of his fellow Audi driver Jamie Green. Augusto Farfus, who dominantly led the race in the opening stages, finished eighth behind Edoardo Mortara and thus was the best-placed BMW driver.

The 13th race of the DTM season was a real tyre lottery: after a heavy downpour just before the start, the track dried out until the halfway point of the race. At that time, some drivers opted to change to slick tyres while others stayed out with rain tyres.

The latter option turned out to be the right decision. Mattias Ekström and Augusto Farfus were particularly unlucky with their tyre choice. Both drivers changed to slick tyres at a time when rain set in again moments later. They both had to make a second pit stop and lost their contact to the front-runners.

The Mercedes-AMG DTM drivers, who turned out to be successful, as well as Rast and Green only changed to a fresh set of rain tyres at a very late stage. “Once the track had dried out, my rain tyres degraded more and more, but we stayed out a little longer,” race winner Auer explained. “Changing to new rain tyres at a late stage paid off.”

Swede Ekström was unlucky: he finished 15th in the race, but remains in the lead of the DTM drivers’ standings.

“At the moment in which I came into the pits for a tyre change, it started to rain again. Certainly, the limited communication with the team didn’t help, but that is the same for every driver. For us, it simply didn’t work out with the weather.”

With the result of the DTM race at the Nürburgring on Saturday, the drivers at the front of the championship standings got even closer together.

After 13 of this season’s 18 races, Ekström is leading with 128 points from Auer (127), Rast (124), Rockenfeller (110), Green (107), Glock (104), Martin (102) and defending champion Wittmann (97). With 140 points still at stake in the remaining five races and qualifying, the battle for the title remains highly exciting.

On Sunday, the second race of the weekend is scheduled at the Nürburgring. The race starts at 15.15 hrs.

The first German TV channel ARD is broadcasting live from the Eifel from 15.00 hrs onwards. Previously, the starting grid positions for the 14th race of the season will be determined in qualifying, which will be broadcast live on ONE.

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Mercedes-AMG also dominated proceedings in third free practice of the DTM at the Nürburgring.

The drivers from the Stuttgart-based brand having claimed the first two places in the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, they even had a clean sweep of the first three positions on Sunday.

Yesterday’s race winner Lucas Auer ended up fastest with a time of 1m21.258s. “In free practice, you try a few things, you drive a little to the right and a little to the left and you see who is fastest."

"In qualifying, the cards really are put on the table. I don’t care about the points’ standings, I don’t even know how many points I have,” the runner-up in the standings commented in his usual relaxed way.

Gary Paffett ended up second with a time of 1m21.351s. Thus, the Brit was classified in the top two in all three practice sessions.

Third place went to Robert Wickens (1m21.406s), with three BMW drivers next up: Marco Wittmann (1m21.486s) in fourth, Tom Blomqvist (1m21.520s) in fifth and Timo Glock (1m21.549s) in sixth.

Once again, René Rast (1m21.557s) was the best-placed Audi driver in seventh position. “It doesn’t look too bad, but I think that the others can still do one bvetter in qualifying."

"We have seen that often in the past, that the others turned out to be more competitive there. For me, P7 wasn’t too bad,” Rast said.

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Two Mercedes-AMG drivers came out on top in second free practice of the DTM at the Nürburgring on Saturday morning.

Once again, Paul Di Resta (1m35.935s) and Gary Paffett (1m36.237s) were up front. This time, however, in reversed order. “Weather conditions are helping us. The car is very good when it is raining, as we have seen yesterday and today. I am enjoying it.

This time, it was the other way round as Paul was faster. I hope we can continue like this in qualifying. I am very happy with the car and I am hoping for a successful day,” second-placed Paffett said. He scored his last win at the Nürburgring to date in 2004.

Behind the two drivers of the Stuttgart-based brand, Timo Glock was classified as the best-placed BMW driver. “Conditions at the track were mixed. My feeling in the car was okay. Getting a clear lap in during qualifying will be difficult."

"At the Nürburgring, reality is always different to what the rain radar says. For me, the most difficult corner in the wet is still the short loop,” said Glock, whose fastest lap resulted into a time of 1m36.441s.

DTM points’ leader Mattias Ekström (1m36.567s) ended up fourth from his fellow Audi driver René Rast (1m36.605s).

“I like such conditions. For the spectators, it probably isn’t too nice. I have tried everything. The Mercedes guys up front were really fast. In qualifying, it is always close. When we get a good set-up, I would be happy with a couple of points. I didn’t get too many of them in qualifying yet,” said Ekström, who has scored four qualifying points so far.

 

         

 

 

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