Jarvis takes shock pole in old Audi
Oliver Jarvis spared Audi's blushes at Zandvoort as he became the first man to take pole position for a DTM race in an old car on Saturday afternoon
Jarvis bettered former champion Gary Paffett's benchmark by half a second in the four-way pole position shootout, to secure pole for Audi on a day that its top drivers will want to forget.
Paffett, who admitted he was slightly surprised to be so high up, will join Jarvis on an all-British front row, while Bruno Spengler took third ahead of Mike Rockenfeller in another 2008 Audi.
Zandvoort has traditionally been a circuit that suits the Audis more than the Mercedes, as the manufacturer has locked out the top four places in the race for the past two years. But the highest-placed 2009-spec A4 on the grid for this year's race is Martin Tomczyk in eighth place.
His Abt Sportsline team-mates (Mattias Ekstrom, Timo Scheider and Tom Kristensen) all failed to get past the second segment of qualifying, leading reigning champion Scheider to brand the session "a catastrophe".
Scheider had a scare in the pits as well, as he collided with Katherine Legge as the Briton came in to change tyres just as the German was leaving his pit bay.
There were collisions between Mercedes drivers as well in the first part of qualifying - with Mathias Lauda bashing into the side of Ralf Schumacher (who qualified last) after the German had hindered his lap at the first corner.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Oliver Jarvis Audi 1m31.966s 2. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1m32.548s 3. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1m32.715s 4. Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1m33.394s 5. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1m31.751s 6. Alexandre Premat Audi 1m31.752s 7. Jamie Green Mercedes 1m31.836s 8. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1m31.876s 9. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1m31.511s 10. Tom Kristensen Audi 1m31.652s 11. Timo Scheider Audi 1m31.731s 12. Markus Winkelhock Audi 1m31.958s 13. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 1m32.189s 14. Katherine Legge Audi 1m32.944s 15. Maro Engel Mercedes 1m32.928s 16. Tomas Kostka Audi 1m32.970s 17. Christian Bakkerud Audi 1m33.297s 18. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 1m33.453s 19. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1m34.087s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Top Comments
F1 2019 game includes official driver transfers for first time
F1 testing: Toro Rosso's Albon on top, Mercedes starts to show pace
Michael Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories
Frustrated Hamilton had to "yank" steering wheel in Azerbaijan GP
Power explains "strange" seat belt problem that thwarted IndyCar title hopes
Piastri's brilliance is both saving and causing problems for McLaren
Van Gisbergen "pretty angry at myself" over last-lap Watkins Glen error
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The plug in and play stand-ins who got their timing just right
The longest-serving Red Bull driver revealing F1’s true brutality
How the DTM has come back stronger from its Norisring nadir
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
