Spengler celebrates his pole position with BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt - Photo Credit: BMW AG
BMW will start the second race of their DTM return with a front row lockout after Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus claimed the top two places in qualifying at the Lausitzring.
Canadian Spengler edged out Brazilian driver Farfus in the decisive Q4 shootout by a narrow 0.038 seconds. Farfus had set the outright pace in the second and third segments.
The BMW duo were joined by one Mercedes and one Audi in the final part of qualifying, with Hockenheim winner Gary Paffett taking third on the grid in his C-Coupe, just five thousandths of a second shy of Farfus.
Mike Rockenfeller was the best of the Audis in fourth, and will line up just ahead of fellow A5 driver Edoardo Mortara. Jamie Green, who finished second behind Paffett in last week's race, took sixth place, ahead of defending champion and BMW man Martin Tomczyk.
Mattias Ekstrom failed to repeat his pole position from Hockenheim and could only manage eighth place, but the Swede was still the best of the Audis from the top Abt squad. Fellow Audi drivers Miguel Molina and Adrien Tambay took the final spots inside the top ten.
Filipe Albuquerque was the first driver to fail to make Q2, ahead of two-time champion Timo Scheider and BMW's Andy Priaulx. The Guernseyman's fellow newcomers Joey Hand and Robert Wickens will line up next in 14th and 15th, with Christian Vietoris 16th. Vietoris had qualified one place higher last week but stormed through the field to cross the finish line in fourth.
Ralf Schumacher failed to make it out of Q1 in his HWA Mercedes, with Roberto Merhi, Susie Wolff and David Coulthard all falling at the first handle for the second week in a row and filling places 18, 19 and 20.
Dirk Werner failed to repeat his heroics from qualifying in Hockenheim where he was the best BMW in third place, this time being knocked out in Q1 with only Rahel Frey going slower.
