Joel powers to sensational P3 in second qualifying

Joel delivered an extraordinary performance in qualifying for Sunday’s DTM race at Hockenheim, taking third on the grid to upstage the experienced front-runners at only his second time of trying.

Thanks to a lap he labelled as “nearly perfect”, Joel shocked the DTM establishment on his way to the third quickest time, beaten only by seasoned super stars Timo Glock and René Rast.

Joel’s 1m32.613s effort came on the second set of tyres, and left him just 0.234s shy of pole-setter Glock’s benchmark time. A mere 0.026 seconds separated Joel from reigning champion Rast and the front row.

Glock and Joel were joined by one other BMW driver, two-time champion Marco Wittmann (P8), in the top ten.

It was another incredibly close session, with the top 18 cars separated by a tiny 0.737s.

Joel once again comfortably led the rookie charts, with Robin Frijns and Philipp Eng down in P15 and P18.

Comment, Joel: “That was very nearly the perfect lap. I’m thrilled with that, going P3 in my second DTM qualifying session. It’s hard to take in at the moment, but we can’t waste too much time thinking about it because the race is coming up very soon. I’ll just have to deal with this as best I can, and try to take the fight with the big guns up there. We had the pace for it in qualifying, so why not in the race?”

Next session: Race 2, 13.30 local time.

Results – Qualifying 2