Misano DTM night race: Audi's Loic Duval claims first pole
Audi's Loic Duval took his maiden pole position in the DTM by beating Edoardo Mortara by three tenths of a second at a wet Misano
As had been the case on Saturday, the evening qualifying session for the night-time race was held in wet conditions and the benchmark was gradually lowered as the session went on.
Nico Muller set the early pace of 1m49.764s, but Lucas Auer entered the 1m48s range a minute later, before Mortara reached the 1m47s, and subsequently the 1m46s, in the second half of qualifying.
That was a huge improvement from Mortara as he went six tenths faster than previous leader Duval, then lowered the benchmark by a further half a second.
Still, this was not enough for pole as Duval fought back, narrowly edging Mortara out with a 1m45.983s.
Duval looked guaranteed to take first place as improvements were scarce during the last two minutes, but he improved one more time regardless and secured his first series pole with a gap of 0.320s.
Mortara claimed second ahead of fellow Mercedes driver Daniel Juncadella, who ended his session by crashing into the wall at Turn 2.
Audi pair Mike Rockenfeller and Rene Rast were fourth and fifth respectively, with Marco Wittmann leading BMW's efforts in sixth, 0.922s off the pace.
Nico Muller featured in the pole fight in the early stages but in the end had to settle for seventh.
Points leader Gary Paffett only took eighth but will still start two places ahead of title rival Paul di Resta, as the British duo sandwiched ninth-placed Timo Glock.
BMW wildcard Alex Zanardi was 19th, 4.4s off pole.
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Loic Duval | Phoenix | Audi | 1m45.983s | - | 11 |
2 | Edoardo Mortara | HWA | Mercedes | 1m46.086s | 0.103s | 10 |
3 | Daniel Juncadella | HWA | Mercedes | 1m46.496s | 0.513s | 9 |
4 | Mike Rockenfeller | Phoenix | Audi | 1m46.545s | 0.562s | 11 |
5 | Rene Rast | Rosberg | Audi | 1m46.635s | 0.652s | 12 |
6 | Marco Wittmann | RMG | BMW | 1m46.688s | 0.705s | 11 |
7 | Nico Muller | Abt | Audi | 1m46.762s | 0.779s | 12 |
8 | Gary Paffett | HWA | Mercedes | 1m46.774s | 0.791s | 12 |
9 | Timo Glock | RMR | BMW | 1m46.801s | 0.818s | 11 |
10 | Paul Di Resta | HWA | Mercedes | 1m46.926s | 0.943s | 11 |
11 | Pascal Wehrlein | HWA | Mercedes | 1m47.103s | 1.120s | 12 |
12 | Joel Eriksson | RBM | BMW | 1m47.302s | 1.319s | 12 |
13 | Lucas Auer | HWA | Mercedes | 1m47.313s | 1.330s | 11 |
14 | Augusto Farfus | RMG | BMW | 1m47.442s | 1.459s | 11 |
15 | Robin Frijns | Abt | Audi | 1m47.802s | 1.819s | 11 |
16 | Philipp Eng | RMR | BMW | 1m47.886s | 1.903s | 12 |
17 | Jamie Green | Rosberg | Audi | 1m48.266s | 2.283s | 12 |
18 | Bruno Spengler | RBM | BMW | 1m48.315s | 2.332s | 11 |
19 | Alessandro Zanardi | RMR | BMW | 1m50.207s | 4.224s | 10 |
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