Farfus on pole ahead of Paffett

Augusto Farfus claimed his second DTM pole in a row in an ultra-close qualifying session at Hockenheim, while Gary Paffett crucially beat his title rival Bruno Spengler to snatch second on the grid.

After setting the pace in Q3, Farfus was the last to set a time in the single-lap Q4 shoot-out; the Brazilian emerging just 0.002 seconds up on Paffett at the second sector.

However, he benefited from Paffett having run wide at the Sachs Kurve to take pole by 0.121s in his RBM BMW.

Despite locking-up and missing the Sachs apex, Paffett’s lap was still good enough to give the HWA Mercedes man second; 0.006s ahead of Spengler’s Schnitzer BMW.

Spengler trails Paffett by three points in the championship, but will take the title if he beats his rival on Sunday and finishes inside the top two.

Abt Sportsline driver Mattias Ekstrom, the first man to set a time in Q4, will start fourth in the best of the Audis.

Joey Hand caused a major surprise, qualifying fifth in the top RMG BMW. Behind the American were his team-mate Martin Tomczyk, who will lose his champion tag on Sunday.

Dirk Werner, Timo Scheider and Edoardo Mortara were next up. Jamie Green, who retains an outside chance of the title, 18 points in arrears of Paffett with 25 up for grabs on Sunday, completed the top 10.

Ralf Schumacher starts 17th, the HWA driver having been knocked out of a Q2 place by Scheider by just 0.006s in the dying seconds of the opening session. He was one of five Mercedes drivers to qualify in the bottom six.

David Coulthard and Susie Wolff, both of whom are taking part in their final DTM races this weekend, made up the last row.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
  1.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m34.140s
  2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m34.261s  + 0.121s
  3.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m34.268s  + 0.128s
  4.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m34.627s  + 0.487s
  5.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m34.031s  Q3
  6.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m34.050s  Q3
  7.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m34.079s  Q3
  8.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m34.133s  Q3
  9.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1m34.159s  Q3
 10.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m34.251s  Q3
 11.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m34.288s  Q2
 12.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      1m34.304s  Q2
 13.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m34.358s  Q2
 14.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m34.375s  Q2
 15.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m34.477s  Q2
 16.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m34.720s  Q2
 17.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m34.722s  Q1
 18.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    1m34.723s  Q1
 19.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m35.032s  Q1
 20.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m35.080s  Q1
 21.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m35.275s  Q1
 22.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  1m35.325s  Q1
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/miscellaneous/dtm/farfus-on-pole-ahead-of-paffett

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