Hockenheim DTM: Eng bags pole with dazzling lap

Eng, whose RBM-run M4 was stricken in FP2 and first qualifying by a sensor problem that shut down the electronics, put in a blistering lap late in the session to beat Saturday race winner and BMW stablemate Marco Wittmann by a clear 0.416 seconds.

The Austrian’s performance proved the pace of the new, 2.0-litre turbocharged, four-cylinder DTM machines – it was 1.5s quicker than Tom Blomqvist’s qualifying lap record from 2017, and 3.3s faster than Gary Paffett’s qualifying benchmark from 2018, when the common-parts concept was introduced.

Wittmann was sitting pretty after the first runs, over 0.3s quicker than the best of the opposition, but his two quick laps at the end of the session on his second set of tyres had no answer to Eng.

Like Wittmann, Audi pair Robin Frijns and Nico Muller improved on the final lap as the chequered flag was unfurled and they will start from third and fourth respectively, but worrying news for Audi is that the time of Frijns is 0.740s slower than Eng’s best.

BMW dominates the third row, with Bruno Spengler lining up alongside Timo Glock, and the two-by-two pattern continues on the fourth row thanks to Audi drivers Jamie Green and Loic Duval, and on the fifth rank with BMW pairing Joel Eriksson and Sheldon van der Linde.

Saturday runner-up Mike Rockenfeller was second on the first runs, but returned his Audi to the pits without setting a quick lap on his second set of tyres, dropping to 11th.

It was even worse news for Rene Rast, who launched the front end of his Audi skywards over the kerbs entering the stadium on his first run.

After attention to the car in the pits, Rast returned to the tracks but could not improve, having a lap deleted for track limits and dropping to 16th on the grid.

That puts him in the middle of the R-Motorsport Aston Martins, with Daniel Juncadella the quickest of the Vantage quartet on his way to 14th in the times.

Cla	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	km/h
1	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	10	1'28.972		185.073
2	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	10	1'29.388	0.416	184.212
3	Robin Frijns	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	10	1'29.712	0.740	183.547
4	Nico Müller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	11	1'29.734	0.762	183.502
5	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	11	1'29.899	0.927	183.165
6	Timo Glock	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	9	1'29.910	0.938	183.143
7	Jamie Green	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	11	1'29.911	0.939	183.141
8	Loic Duval	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	11	1'29.915	0.943	183.132
9	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	9	1'29.920	0.948	183.122
10	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	11	1'29.957	0.985	183.047
11	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	7	1'30.088	1.116	182.781
12	Jonathan Aberdein	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	10	1'30.122	1.150	182.712
13	Pietro Fittipaldi	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	9	1'30.126	1.154	182.704
14	Daniel Juncadella	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	10	1'30.273	1.301	182.406
15	Paul di Resta	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	9	1'30.403	1.431	182.144
16	René Rast	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	9	1'30.568	1.596	181.812
17	Ferdinand Habsburg	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	11	1'30.702	1.730	181.543
18	Jake Dennis	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	10	1'31.031	2.059	180.887
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