Miguel Molina takes maiden DTM pole

Miguel Molina

Miguel Molina claimed his first DTM pole position by the narrowest of margins at Oschersleben as he beat Bruno Spengler by just a thousandth of a second. The Spaniard, who has not even scored a point this season, had never previously qualified higher than fourth, but took his old-spec Abt Audi to the top spot in a time of 1m22.317s.

Spengler, the last man to set a time in Q4, was slower than Molina in sector one, but pulled back almost all the time in the remainder of the lap and only just missed out. Behind them Oliver Jarvis and Mattias Ekstrom made it three Abt cars in the top four, the latter giving himself too much work to do after a poor opening sector in Q4.

Miguel Molina

Spengler sensationally went quickest in Q3, despite the Canadian complaining over the radio to his team that he felt as if his Mercedes was running on only seven of its eight cylinders and was seriously lacking in top end power. The 1m21.801s lap was 0.009s quicker than Molina, while the Spaniard's Abt team-mate Timo Scheider, HWA men Jamie Green and Ralf Schumacher and Rosberg Audi driver Edoardo Mortara all missed out on Q4.

The quartet filled the next four positions while the top 10 was completed by Maro Engel's Mucke Mercedes and the off-form Mike Rockenfeller (Abt), both ahead of practice pacesetter Filipe Albuquerque. Championship leader Martin Tomczyk had a dreadful afternoon and failed to make it into Q2, the championship leader only 15th quickest in Q1 and missing out on a spot in the next part of the session by over 0.1s.

He will be promoted one place to 14th on the grid, however, when a five-place grid penalty is applied to Persson Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris – 13th quickest – for overtaking under yellow flags at Brands Hatch last time out. There was even worse news for Gary Paffett, whose miserable season continued as he failed to complete a flying lap due to a misfire on the engine of his HWA Mercedes. He will start 17th.

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