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Edoardo Mortara secures first DTM pole at Spielberg

Edoardo Mortara took his maiden DTM pole position with a brilliant performance at Spielberg on Saturday

The 25-year-old Italian was the third driver to set a time in the single-lap Q4 part of qualifying and the Rosberg Audi driver took provisional pole in 1m26.171s to put him 0.121 seconds clear of championship leader Gary Paffett's HWA Mercedes.

When Q3 pacesetter Mattias Ekstrom then went out for his Q4 lap, the Swede lost time in both the second and third sectors and wound up third to guarantee pole for Mortara ahead of what will be only his 14th start in the series.

Martin Tomczyk completed the second row alongside Ekstrom's Abt Audi. Despite having fresher tyres than all his Q4 rivals, the defending champion made a mistake at Turn 1, bouncing over the Ludwig kerb at the corner's exit and launching his RMG-run BMW a foot into the air. Fourth still marked his best qualifying spot since joining BMW for 2012.

Tomczyk's team-mate Joey Hand, who was knocked out of a Q4 spot by Mortara right at the end of Q3, qualified a career-best fifth, ahead of fellow BMW man Bruno Spengler and Jamie Green in the second HWA Mercedes.

Schnitzer driver Spengler had only scraped into Q3 in the first place, his final lap of Q2 promoting him from 16th to 10th. August Farfus set an identical time in his RBM-run M3, but was classified behind as he had completed the lap a few seconds later.

Filipe Albuquerque qualified eighth to make it two Rosberg cars in the top 10 for the first time in 2012. Dirk Werner (Schnitzer) and Ralf Schumacher (HWA) completed the top 10, the grand prix winner taking his best grid spot of the year.

Phoenix Audi team-mates Miguel Molina and Mike Rockenfeller were only 12th and 13th - the latter ending a five-race run of qualifying inside the top five despite lapping less than 0.5s off the pace. Two-time series champion Timo Scheider's troubled season continued as the Abt driver qualified 16th.

There were no major surprises in Q1, Tomczyk averting a potential crisis by setting two times easily good enough for the top six in the final few minutes. Among those eliminated early were Andy Priaulx; 18th in his RBM BMW, and David Coulthard; 22nd and last in his Mucke Mercedes.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1m26.171s
 2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m26.292s  + 0.121s
 3.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m26.319s  + 0.148s
 4.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m26.408s  + 0.237s
 5.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m25.927s  Q3
 6.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m25.963s  Q3
 7.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m26.022s  Q3
 8.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m26.294s  Q3
 9.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m26.309s  Q3
10.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m26.340s  Q3
11.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m26.068s  Q2
12.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m26.251s  Q2
13.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      1m26.274s  Q2
14.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m26.320s  Q2
15.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m26.449s  Q2
16.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m26.519s  Q2
17.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m26.605s  Q1
18.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m26.620s  Q1
19.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    1m26.725s  Q1
20.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  1m26.914s  Q1
21.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m27.057s  Q1
22.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m27.117s  Q1

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