DTM Zandvoort: Gary Paffett takes pole in Mercedes 1-2-3-4 sweep
DTM series leader Gary Paffett has earned pole position for the first race of the Zandvoort round as Mercedes claimed a 1-2-3-4 in qualifying
Paffett set his time on his first run and, despite setting a purple opening sector on his second set of tyres, he was unable to match his earlier effort on his next attempt.
Paul di Resta lay second at the midway point of the session, but Pascal Wehrlein's second run allowed him to vault the Scot and move onto the front row, 0.060 seconds adrift of Paffett's best.
Di Resta claimed that he was compromised during his outlap on his second set of tyres, and will start third.
Another to improve on the second runs was Lucas Auer, who moved himself up into fourth position.
BMW's leading duo in the standings, Timo Glock and Marco Wittmann, led the Munich manufacturer's charge and will share the third row of the grid.
Audi again looks short of pace compared to its two rivals, but local hero Robin Frijns put his car seventh on the grid ahead of stablemates Nico Muller and Rene Rast.
Completing the top 10 was the BMW of Augusto Farfus.
It was a disastrous session for Edoardo Mortara, who lies second in the championship - he was 15th after the first runs and slumped to 18th and last by the end of the 20 minutes of running.
Qualifying result
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Paffett | HWA | Mercedes | 1m30.778s |
| 2 | Pascal Wehrlein | HWA | Mercedes | 0.060s |
| 3 | Paul Di Resta | HWA | Mercedes | 0.202s |
| 4 | Lucas Auer | HWA | Mercedes | 0.285s |
| 5 | Timo Glock | RMR | BMW | 0.439s |
| 6 | Marco Wittmann | RMG | BMW | 0.559s |
| 7 | Robin Frijns | Abt | Audi | 0.597s |
| 8 | Nico Muller | Abt | Audi | 0.646s |
| 9 | Rene Rast | Rosberg | Audi | 0.683s |
| 10 | Augusto Farfus | RMG | BMW | 0.691s |
| 11 | Mike Rockenfeller | Phoenix | Audi | 0.699s |
| 12 | Bruno Spengler | RBM | BMW | 0.699s |
| 13 | Philipp Eng | RMR | BMW | 0.704s |
| 14 | Daniel Juncadella | HWA | Mercedes | 0.729s |
| 15 | Joel Eriksson | RBM | BMW | 0.748s |
| 16 | Loic Duval | Phoenix | Audi | 0.845s |
| 17 | Jamie Green | Rosberg | Audi | 0.983s |
| 18 | Edoardo Mortara | HWA | Mercedes | 1.189s |
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About this article
| Series | DTM |
| Drivers | Gary Paffett |
| Author | Marcus Simmons |
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