19th May, 2012
Paffett strong at his home round: pole for the points’ leader
DTM
Fawkham. He made the best use of his home advantage: Briton Gary Paffett claimed pole position in qualifying for the third DTM round of the year at Brands Hatch. With his DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, the points’ leader set a time of 41.266 seconds at the track, which is the shortest on the DTM schedule at 1.929 kilometres. “Of course, being up front in qualifying is always important. But at Brands Hatch, it is particularly important, because there are hardly any opportunities to overtake here. Today, everything came together. We are in the lead of the points’ standings and can make another big step tomorrow”, Paffett said after qualifying, in which his fellow Mercedes-Benz driver Christian Vietoris completed the success by ending up second. For the 23-year old German, it was his best DTM qualifying result while Paffett had achieved the ninth pole position of his DTM career.
Bruno Spengler continued from his strong performance at Lausitzring and qualified third on the grid with the BMW M3 DTM. “At Brands Hatch, it always is incredibly close. The times are very closely together. Finding a clear lap was very difficult. The race will certainly be thrilling. I will give everything to move up all the way to the front”, the Canadian promised his fans.
German Mike Rockenfeller became the best-placed driver of an Audi A5 DTM in fourth place on Saturday. “Had I been offered fourth place before qualifying, I would have accepted it. But, of course, when you make it into the fourth and final heat, you want to be at the front. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. Perhaps, I was a little bit too cautious”, said “Rocky”.
Martin Tomczyk (BMW ) followed behind Rockenfeller in fifth place. They, in turn, were followed by a trio of Audi drivers with Filipe Albuquerque (PT), Adrian Tambay (FR) and Swede Mattias Ekström in sixth to eighth place. Brazilian Augusto Farfus (BMW) and Brit Jamie Green (Mercedes-Benz) rounded out the top ten.
The third round of the season, covering 98 laps and 189.042 kilometres starts on Sunday at 14.00 h (CET). ARD is broadcasting live from 13.45 h.
