Jules Gounon delivered a stunning turnaround at the Nurburgring by securing his first pole position of the DTM season during Sunday morning's qualifying session. Overcoming initial morning fog and cool temperatures just below twenty degrees, the Winward-Mercedes driver shattered the previous lap record with a blistering time of 1:25.062.
"Last night after the race I complained properly once again. And my mechanics and my engineer actually found a small problem with the differential, the cause of which we couldn't explain," Gounon revealed, explaining how a late technical fix transformed the handling of his car.
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Subscribe"This morning we fixed it, and the car drove fantastically. So I said on the radio: "Okay guys, if that isn't good enough for P5, I don't understand motorsport anymore," added the French driver, who sits eleventh in the championship standings.
McLaren youngster Ben Dorr capitalized on strong equipment to finish second, just 0.113 seconds behind the pacesetting "Mamba", while Saturday winner Matteo Cairoli rounded out the top three for Emil Frey Ferrari.
Title Contenders Close in During Tactical Weekend
Title contender Nicki Thiim bounced back strongly after a frustrating outing on Saturday, placing fourth in his Comtoyou Aston Martin following a helpful Balance of Performance adjustment that eased his car's weight constraints.
Championship leader Maro Engel qualified directly behind Thiim in fifth place, benefiting significantly from a forty-kilogram weight reduction across his Mercedes-AMG GT3 package compared to the previous day's race configuration.
"I'm pleased for Jules. He showed what was possible. We weren't quite good enough today to keep up in qualifying - but still a solid starting position," Engel remarked on his teammate's stellar performance.
Meanwhile, Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann struggled to piece a clean lap together on a nervous chassis setup, settling for sixth ahead of Landgraf-Mercedes racer Lucas Auer and Manthey Porsche's Thomas Preining.