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Rachit Thukral

DTM Hockenheim: Rast takes pole as red flag compromises title rivals

Fraga had just set the fastest time of the session when he crashed his AF Corse Ferrari into the barriers at the exit of Turn 1, prompting race control to deploy the red flag.

With just two minutes left on the clock, a decision was made not to restart the qualifying and the results were declared based on the order established before the intervention.

Fraga’s time was taken out as per the regulation as he had caused the red flag, promoting Abt Audi’s Rast to pole position for the season finale courtesy of his previous effort of 1m36.817s.

The three points he so scored means he keeps a faint hope of departing Audi as a four-time champion, especially as his chief title rivals Sheldon van der Linde and Lucas Auer hadn’t set a competitive lap by that time.

Championship leader van de Linde ended up only sixth in the Schubert BMW, nearly two seconds off pole position, while Saturday race winner Auer could only manage 11th in one of his worst qualifying performances of the season.

Rast also received a Balance of Performance boost late on Saturday night as the size of the Audi’s restrictor increased by 1mm to allow for more power. Conversely, all BMW drivers including van der Linde will have to do with 0.041 bar less of boost pressure in Sunday's race, while Winward driver Auer and his Mercedes stablemates were hit with 5kg in additional weight.

Van der Linde goes into the championship finale just two points clear of Auer, with Rast now 19 points adrift of the former and needing the minimum of a race win to have any chance of winning the title.

Lamborghini’s Mirko Bortolotti was relying on a single run in qualifying and had just set the fastest time of all in the opening sector when the red flag was brought out, leaving him 18th on the grid and officially out of the title fight.

However, his Grasser Racing teammate Clemens Schmid was lucky with the timing of the intervention and secured his front row spot of the season alongside Rast, with Attempto Audi’s Marius Zug also pulling off a surprise by qualifying third.

Fourth place on the grid will go to the Walkenhorst BMW of Marco Wittmann, while Rosberg Audi star Nico Muller will start his last race as a DTM driver from fifth on the grid, just ahead of van der Linde.

Dev Gore made it two cars from Rosberg Audis in the top seven after his career-best race result on Saturday was upheld by the stewards, while Christian Engelhart (SSR Performance), Maximilian Gotz (Winward Mercedes) and Leon Kohler (Walkenhorst BMW) completed the top 10.

Reigning champion Gotz will be the top Mercedes on the grid, two places ahead of the marque’s title representative Auer.

A total of seven drivers were ruled out from taking part in the final qualifying of the year following a series of crashes in Saturday’s red-flagged race, leaving only 20 entries in the field.

DTM Hockenheim - Qualifying results:

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 22 Austria Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1:34'18.676  
2 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde BMW M4 GT3 1:34'19.357 0.681
3 11 Germany Marco Wittmann BMW M4 GT3 1:34'20.583 1.907
4 12 United States Dev Gore Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1:34'21.775 3.099
5 33 Germany René Rast Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1:34'23.729 5.053
6 25 Austria Philipp Eng BMW M4 GT3 1:34'24.525 5.849
7 63 Italy Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1:34'24.972 6.296
8 51 Switzerland Nico Müller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1:34'28.000 9.324
9 4 Germany Luca Stolz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1:34'33.026 14.350
10 18 Germany Maximilian Buhk Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1:34'38.328 19.652
11 88 Germany Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1:34'38.781 20.105
12 3 South Africa Kelvin van der Linde Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1:34'39.935 21.259
13 74 Brazil Felipe Fraga Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1:34'40.498 21.822
14 92 Germany Christian Engelhart Porsche 911 GT3 R 1:34'41.162 22.486
15 1 Germany Maximilian Götz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1:34'49.894 31.218
16 10 Leon Köhler BMW M4 GT3 1:35'00.221 41.545
  6 Italy Alessio Deledda Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1:15'53.237 11 Laps
  37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 13'37.890 24 Laps
  7 Switzerland Ricardo Feller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 13'38.051 24 Laps
  24 Austria Thomas Preining Porsche 911 GT3 R 13'38.099 24 Laps
  27 Germany David Schumacher Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 13'38.384 24 Laps
  94 Norway Dennis Olsen Porsche 911 GT3 R 13'38.420 24 Laps
  55 Canada Mikael Grenier Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 13'38.801 24 Laps
  85 Austria Clemens Schmid Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 13'39.099 24 Laps
  19 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 13'39.391 24 Laps
  66 Germany Marius Zug Audi R8 LMS Evo II 13'39.521 24 Laps
  36 India Arjun Maini Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 0.000  
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