Joel lapped faster than the current DTM championship leader in qualifying for Saturday’s opening race of the weekend in Budapest, but still had to make do with 15th on the grid as BMW suffered a difficult session.
While qualifying took place in dry conditions, a spell of overnight rain meant grip levels changed considerably compared to Friday’s free practice outing, where Joel had enjoyed a promising start to the Hungarian meeting by going fifth fastest (as the top BMW).
This appeared to catch out several of the usual suspects in qualifying, with BMW in particular struggling for pace; Augusto Farfus being the Munich marque’s leading representative in P8.
Joel wound up 15th quickest, two tenths down on Farfus and 0.789s adrift of pole-setter Paul Di Resta (Mercedes) around the twisty Hungaroring. Joel set the exact same time as 14th placed fellow DTM rookie Robin Frijns (Audi), but the Dutchman takes priority on the list having sat his time earlier in the session.
Out-pacing BMW stablemate and championship leader Timo Glock was little consolation for Joel, who is set to share the eighth row of the grid with the former Formula 1 star in today’s race at 13.30 local time.
“A disappointing one,” says Joel. “We tried to go for three sets of tyres, but they never came to life and I think all of us lacked a bit of grip. This track normally suits me well and after going fifth in practice yesterday I know the potential is there, but this session just didn’t go our way. We will need to look carefully at our strategic options for the race and try to pull something out of the bag, because overtaking is very difficult at this track.”
Results – Qualifying 1
WEEKEND TIME TABLE
All times local (GMT+02:00)
DTM | Round 3
Hungaroring (Hungary)
Friday 1 June
Free Practice 1: 16.05-16.35
Saturday 2 June
Free Practice 2: 08.35-09.05
Qualifying 1: 11.20-11.40
Race 1: 13.30-14.30
Sunday 3 June
Free Practice 3: 08.30-09.00
Qualifying 2: 11.20-11.40
Race 2: 13.30-14.30
FURTHER INFORMATION
Entry list: DTM 2018
Rules: how the championship works
FOLLOW JOEL (IF YOU CAN…)
Website: www.joelerikssonracing.com
Facebook: JoelErikssonRacing
Instagram: JoelEriksson
Live streaming: www.dtm.com/live
