Sort order of comments does not change

I created a panel page to exchange the "comment reply form".
On top "comment form", middle "node comments" and at the bottom "node content".

I wanted to have the comments sorted "newest first"
But it doesn't change, no matter what I'm doing. It's always displayed as "oldest first".
I hope this is not a mistake on my site anywhere, but i tried it a few times, creating the panel from scratch.

Here the exported panel:

<?php
$page = new stdClass();
$page->pid = 'new';
  $page->name = 'node_reply';
  $page->title = '';
  $page->arguments = array (
    0 => 
    array (
      'name' => 'nid',
      'default' => 'ignore',
      'title' => '',
      'id' => 1,
      'identifier' => 'Node ID',
      'keyword' => 'node',
      'argument_settings' => 
      array (
        'types' => 
        array (
          'forum' => 'forum',
          'book' => 0,
          'image' => 0,
          'panel' => 0,
          'page' => 0,
          'story' => 0,
        ),
        'own_default' => 0,
        'displays' => 
        array (
          'forum' => 'forum',
          'book' => 0,
          'image' => 0,
          'panel' => 0,
          'page' => 0,
          'story' => 0,
        ),
      ),
    ),
  );
  $page->contexts = array();
  $page->relationships = array();
  $page->access = array();
  $page->path = 'comment/reply/%';
  $page->css_id = '';
  $page->css = '';
  $page->no_blocks = '0';
  $page->menu = '0';
  $page->menu_tab = '0';
  $page->menu_tab_weight = '0';
  $page->menu_title = '';
  $page->menu_tab_default = '0';
  $page->menu_tab_default_parent_type = 'tab';
  $page->menu_parent_title = '';
  $page->menu_parent_tab_weight = '0';
$display = new stdClass();
$display->did = 'new';
$display->name = NULL;
$display->layout = 'flexible';
$display->layout_settings = array (
  'width_type' => '%',
  'percent_width' => '100',
  'rows' => '3',
  'row_1' => 
  array (
    'columns' => '1',
    'width_1' => '100',
    'names' => 
    array (
      0 => 'Top',
    ),
  ),
  'row_2' => 
  array (
    'columns' => '1',
    'width_1' => '100',
    'width_2' => '50',
    'width_3' => '25',
    'names' => 
    array (
      0 => 'Middle',
    ),
  ),
  'row_3' => 
  array (
    'columns' => '1',
    'width_1' => '100',
    'names' => 
    array (
      0 => 'Bottom',
    ),
  ),
  'sidebars' => 
  array (
    'left' => 0,
    'left_width' => 200,
    'right' => 0,
    'right_width' => 200,
    'width_type' => 'px',
  ),
);
$display->panel_settings = array (
  'style' => 'default',
  'style_settings' => 
  array (
  ),
  'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
  'individual' => 0,
  'panel' => 
  array (
    'row_1_1' => 
    array (
      'style' => '',
      'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
    ),
    'row_2_1' => 
    array (
      'style' => '',
      'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
    ),
    'row_2_2' => 
    array (
      'style' => '',
      'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
    ),
    'row_2_3' => 
    array (
      'style' => '',
      'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
    ),
    'row_3_1' => 
    array (
      'style' => '',
      'edit_style' => 'Edit style settings',
    ),
  ),
  'did' => '8',
);
$display->content = array();
$display->panels = array();
$pane = new stdClass();
  $pane->pid = 'new-1';
  $pane->panel = 'row_1_1';
  $pane->type = 'node_comment_form';
  $pane->subtype = 'comment_form';
  $pane->access = array();
  $pane->configuration = array (
    'context' => 'argument_nid_1',
    'override_title' => 0,
    'override_title_text' => '',
    'css_id' => '',
    'css_class' => '',
  );
$display->content['new-1'] = $pane;
$display->panels['row_1_1'][0] = 'new-1';
$pane = new stdClass();
  $pane->pid = 'new-2';
  $pane->panel = 'row_2_1';
  $pane->type = 'node_comments';
  $pane->subtype = 'comments';
  $pane->access = array();
  $pane->configuration = array (
    'context' => 'argument_nid_1',
    'override_title' => 1,
    'override_title_text' => '',
    'css_id' => '',
    'css_class' => '',
    'mode' => '2',
    'order' => '1',
    'comments_per_page' => '10',
  );
$display->content['new-2'] = $pane;
$display->panels['row_2_1'][0] = 'new-2';
$pane = new stdClass();
  $pane->pid = 'new-3';
  $pane->panel = 'row_3_1';
  $pane->type = 'node';
  $pane->subtype = 'node';
  $pane->access = array();
  $pane->configuration = array (
    'override_title' => 0,
    'override_title_text' => '',
    'css_id' => '',
    'css_class' => '',
    'nid' => '%2',
    'teaser' => 0,
    'links' => 1,
    'leave_node_title' => 0,
  );
$display->content['new-3'] = $pane;
$display->panels['row_3_1'][0] = 'new-3';
$page->display = $display;
$page->displays = array();
  $page->displays['argument_0-forum']['title'] = 'Node ID 1 Forum topic';
  $page->displays['argument_0-forum']['argument_id'] = '0';
    $display = new stdClass();
    $display->did = 'new';
    $display->name = NULL;
    $display->layout = NULL;
    $display->layout_settings = NULL;
    $display->panel_settings = NULL;
    $display->content = array();
    $display->panels = array();
  $page->displays['argument_0-forum']['display'] =  $display;
?>