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The qualifying result promises excitement for the eighth DTM race of the 2017 season: Behind the wheel of his BMW M4 DTM, Tom Blomqvist secured pole position with a time of 47.252 seconds.

Only four thousandths of a second further down was Robert Wickens with his Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM, who will be lining up alongside Blomqvist on the front row of the grid. With Audi’s Nico Müller in third place, the mix of the three brands on the first three places is complete.

"I had a very good first lap, but everything is so very closely together. I am very happy. The first race wasn’t so good from my perspective." Said Blomqvist

"When you are on pole position, you want to win the race as well, of course. It is a long way, the car is good, we will see."

The battle for the lap times was a close affair. The first six drivers, including Bruno Spengler (BMW), Mattias Ekström (Audi) and Lucas Auer (Mercedes-AMG) in fourth to sixth place, posted lap times within one tenth of a second.

While points’ leader Ekström and fourth-placed Auer will be starting from the front part of the grid, the two Audi drivers René Rast and Jamie Green, second and third in the drivers’ standings, have considerable worse grid positions in tenth and 14th place respectively.

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Bruno Spengler is the winner of the DTM race at the Norisring on Saturday. After 61 laps in the seventh race of the DTM season, the Canadian drove his BMW M4 DTM to a dominant win from his fellow BMW driver and team-mate Maxime Martin.

For BMW and for Spengler, this achievement almost is a historic one: the brand from Munich hadn’t won a DTM race at the street circuit in Nuremberg for 25 years and Spengler’s last time on the top step of the podium to date was four years ago in the DTM race at Spielberg. For Spengler, it is the 15th win of his DTM career.

Back in 2006, he also scored his maiden DTM race win at the Norisring, still with a Mercedes at the time. Third place in a race with a turbulent opening stage went to Swede Mattias Ekström with his Audi RS 5 DTM, who also moves up into the lead of the drivers’ standings.

“I fought hard and I never gave up,” Spengler commented after the race. “Of course, I am very happy, such a success is mega. The car was great, both in the rain and in dry conditions.” The Canadian already laid the foundation for his victory at the start. From third place on the grid, he overtook Martin, who had a poor getaway, and René Rast, moved up into the lead and consistently extended his lead with fast lap times.

Ekström, too, was happy with the result: “It seems that it was the right decision to compete in the DTM rather than the World Rallycross Championship. The battle with Maxime (Martin) was great fun, I like to race in DTM like that. At the end, I didn’t take maximum risk to safely bring the points for third place home.”

EKSTROM TAKES POINTS’ LEAD FROM RAST

The 15 points for third place enable Ekström to take the lead in the DTM drivers’ standings. After seven of this season’s 18 DTM races, the Swede is in the lead with 77 points. His fellow Audi driver René Rast is second with 72 points. In spite of having started from second place on the grid, he failed to score points as he finished twelfth following a drive through penalty for crossing the line at the pit lane exit. Jamie Green is third in the standings with 71 points from Lucas Auer (69 points) and Timo Glock (59 points).

Edoardo Mortara was the best-placed Mercedes-AMG DTM driver on Saturday. The Italian finished eighth. Lucas Auer and Robert Wickens were the victims of the action in the opening stage of the race. Both retired early after collisions.

 

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Lucas Auer was also fastest in third free practice at the Norisring on Sunday. With 47.632 seconds, the Mercedes-AMG driver posted the fastest time of all three practice sessions held this weekend.

One day before, the Austrian had already topped the time sheets in second free practice with a time of 47.841 seconds. Now, Auer was 0.091 seconds faster than René Rast (47.723 seconds.

With Nico Müller (47.754), Mike Rockenfeller (47.771) and Jamie Green (47.779), further Audi drivers followed in third to fifth place. The winner of the race on Saturday, Bruno Spengler was the best-placed BMW driver, classified sixth with a time of 47.796 seconds.

“I am happy with second place in free practice. We have made a few changes on the set-up compared to yesterday. Now, we have to analyse whether that was the right way, but it doesn’t look bad,” Rast said.  

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First qualifying of the DTM at the Norisring was a real thriller. During the final stages, there were position changes in the lead almost every second. Even a slight drizzle setting in at the 2.3 kilometres long street circuit in Nuremberg didn’t affect the drivers.

Maxime Martin had the best nerves: with his BMW M4 DTM, he posted the fastest time of 47.472 seconds and thus secured his third pole position in the DTM.

DTM points’ leader René Rast was only five thousandths of a second slower with jos Audi RS 5 DTM.

BMW locks out the second row of the grid with Bruno Spengler (47.493 seconds) and Tom Blomqvist (47.527 seconds). Classified fifth, Lucas Auer ended up as the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver in qualifying. With 47.584 seconds, the Austrian was just over a tenth of a second down on the fastest time.

"So far, we haven’t been really strong. I am happy that the car is strong jere in qualifying." Said Martin

"For us, that is a big step ahead. I am confident for the race. It will be a long battle and I will try to win."

The free practice sessions at the Norisring were already entertaining, but in qualifying, the DTM field was even closer together. The times of all 18 DTM drivers were within 0.651 seconds.

The seventh race of the 2017 DTM season gets underway at 13.25 hrs. The race distance is 55 minutes plus one lap. The first German TV channel ARD is broadcasting live from the Norisring from 13.10 hrs onwards. 

 

         

 

 

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