Veteran driver Maro Engel kept his cool in the second DTM qualifying session  at the Nürburgringon Sunday morning  and secured his first pole position of the season. In difficult mixed conditions, the Mercedes-AMG driver opted for wet tires and set the fastest lap of 1:33.750 minutes on the 3.629-kilometer Eifel circuit.

“We had to wait a long time for this moment as Mercedes-AMG Team Winward. From my point of view, the tire choice was crucial. I said on the radio that I wanted to continue on wet weather tires. That was the right decision. I'm looking forward to the race and hope for dry conditions,” said a delighted Engel, who is in first place on the grid for the third time in his DTM career.

Only 0.007 seconds slower was Ricardo Feller from Abt Sportsline, who was also on wet tires in his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2. Marco Wittmann from Schubert Motorsport, on the other hand, set the third-best time with the Pirelli slicks in his BMW M4 GT3. Luca Stolz drove his HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 to fourth place, while Mirko Bortolotti, second in the standings, finished the qualifying session in fifth place in the SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Abt Sportsline's front-runner Kelvin van der Linde will start Sunday's race at the Nürburgring from seventh place behind Frenchman Franck Perera.

On Sunday morning, it did not initially look as if the 20 DTM stars would be able to tackle qualifying at 9:20 am. Typical Eifel fog hung over the traditional circuit, but cleared just in time for the start. Then the tire poker began. On the partly damp track, some drivers opted for slicks, others for the rain tires from Pirelli. The decision was only made shortly before the end: all of the top five drivers set their respective best times in the final seconds of qualifying and were within 0.4 seconds of each other. Due to the different tire strategies, the gaps in the field were much larger than usual in DTM qualifying.

Qualifying result, 10th race of the season, Nürburgring

Maro Engel (D/Mercedes-AMG Team Winward), 1:33.750 minutes
Ricardo Feller (CH/Abt Sportsline), +0.007 seconds
Marco Wittmann (D/Schubert Motorsport), +0.160 seconds
Luca Stolz (D/Mercedes-AMG Team HRT), +0.242 seconds
Mirko Bortolotti (I/SSR Performance), +0.398 seconds

The complete result is available here.