Miguel Molina secures race two pole position at the Nürburgring

Audi Sport’s Miguel Molina was the fastest driver during qualifying for race 16 of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) at the Nürburgring, taking his second pole position of the season.

BMW’s Tom Blomqvist equaled his best qualifying session of the season in second, 0.207 seconds behind pole sitter Molina, with Jamie Green rounding out the top three. The trio were separated by 0.289 seconds.

“This was a perfect lap,” said the Spaniard, who has now secured pole position five times in his DTM career.

“I didn’t make a single mistake which in view of the close competition in the DTM is crucial. My car was superb – the mechanics did a fantastic job following my accident yesterday.”

The 20-minute session saw the Mercedes of Paul Di Resta and Robert Wickens set the initial benchmarks, before times started rapidly dropping towards the end of qualifying in sunny conditions.

Di Resta would end up fourth fastest, ahead of Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus, with Wickens behind the trio in seventh.

Maximillian Götz continued his good form at the Nürburgring, as the 29-year-old lines up eighth ahead of current points leader Pascal Wehrlein, with current champion Marco Wittmann rounding out the top ten.

Gary Paffett was a notable absentee, as the ART Grand Prix driver’s C63 AMG suffered an engine failure in the morning warm-up, meaning the Brit had to sit out of qualifying.

Team MTEK’s Timo Glock spun out on his out lap just three minutes into the session, but managed to recover to start 11^th on the grid.

Title contenders Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara had a session to forget, as the Audi Sport pair will start from 17^th and 20^th respectively.

Race two starts at 1338 CEST (1235 BST) and will last for 60 minutes plus one lap, which includes a mandatory pitstop.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	9	1:21.732	0.000
2	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	7	1:21.939	0.207
3	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	10	1:22.021	0.289
4	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1:22.046	0.314
5	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	10	1:22.049	0.317
6	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	9	1:22.086	0.354
7	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	10	1:22.096	0.364
8	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1:22.217	0.485
9	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1:22.219	0.487
10	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	8	1:22.239	0.507
11	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	10	1:22.295	0.563
12	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	10	1:22.301	0.569
13	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1:22.310	0.578
14	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	9	1:22.312	0.580
15	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	7	1:22.317	0.585
16	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	9	1:22.344	0.612
17	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	10	1:22.405	0.673
18	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	10	1:22.410	0.678
19	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	8	1:22.417	0.685
20	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	10	1:22.474	0.742
21	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	11	1:22.514	0.782
22	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	8	1:22.667	0.935
23	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	10	1:23.820	2.088
24	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	0	No time	N/A

Complete session results