DTM Norisring: Thiim seals second pole of the weekend as Wiebelhaus joins the front row

Nicki Thiim made it a clean sweep of DTM pole positions at the Norisring, topping Sunday morning qualifying with a 48.583sec lap in the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 less than 24 hours after converting Saturday’s pole into a dominant victory.

With qualifying at the Nuremberg street circuit again split into two groups, Thiim set the outright benchmark in Group B, while Finn Wiebelhaus topped Group A with a 48.694sec effort in the #64 HRT Ford Performance Mustang GT3 to claim a front-row start alongside the Dane. It continues a strong weekend for the young Ford driver, who set his time late on in the 20-minute session.

Ford strength, Mercedes-AMG adrift

Arjun Maini backed up Saturday’s podium by going second fastest in Group B, 0.158sec off Thiim, putting both HRT Mustangs inside the top three on the grid. Ben Dörr was agonisingly close to topping Group A, missing out to Wiebelhaus by just 0.005sec in the Dörr Motorsport McLaren, and shares row two with Maini.

Lucas Auer was third in Group B for Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf, while Jules Gounon led the Group A midfield. Championship leader Maro Engel faces a difficult afternoon, however. The Team Ravenol Mercedes-AMG driver could manage only sixth in Group A, leaving him deep in the pack a day after finishing second.

Thomas Preining’s struggles continued with sixth in Group B for Manthey, while Mirko Bortolotti was fourth in the same group for TGI Team by GRT.

The field was reduced to 19 cars, with the #3 Schubert BMW of Kelvin van der Linde and the #19 TGI Team by GRT Lamborghini of Maximilian Paul both withdrawn following their heavy accident in Saturday’s race.

Race 2 gets underway on Sunday at 13:30 CEST.