Jamie Green continued his fine form around the Red Bull Ring, taking his second pole of the weekend as he looks to claw his way back into serious championship contention ahead of the DTM Series finale at the Hockenheimring next month.
Green will start ahead of fellow Audi Qualifying supremo René Rast and the 2016 champion, BMW‘s Marco Wittmann.
A 1:21.955s, set in the dying moments of the session was enough to oust Rast from provisional pole by a mere five-hundredths of a second, with the whole field separated by just seven-tenths.
Championship leader Mattias Ekström could only manage eighth, ensuring that Green closed the gap at the top to 25 points ahead of this afternoon’s race. Fellow contender Lucas Auer struggled at his home event, he’ll start from last on the grid.
For all of Green’s late pace, it was Rast who had the measure of the Brit in the early stages of Qualifying, as he looked to add to his haul of thirteen Qualifying points in his first full DTM season. A time in the early 1 minute 22 second bracket looked a tough one to beat, Green settling for second best ahead of Wittmann, Nico Müller and Gary Paffett.
Auer meanwhile languished in fifteenth, losing four-tenths of a second towards the final part of the lap, partly due to his insistence to stay in close proximity to the back of Bruno Spengler‘s BMW – despite having a five-second buffer behind him on track.
However, even in clean air, Auer continued to struggle with the balance of his Mercedes in the flowing final sector, dropping to the rear of the grid after failing to improve his time on his final run.
Green had no trouble in finding time, taking provisional pole from Rast, only for the German to snatch it back seconds later, but not to be denied, Green’s final lap saw him eclipse his brand mate once again, becoming the only man to enter into the 1 minute 21 frame all session.
Wittmann claimed a lonely third – the only BMW in the top six – with Audi’s Moscow hero Mike Rockenfeller alongside him on the second row. Paffett, Timo Glock, Ekström, Tom Blomqvist and Spengler rounded out the top ten.
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