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Rachit Thukral

DTM Norisring: Rast claims first pole for BMW in Sunday qualifying

Having scored his maiden podium since his switch to Audi on Saturday, Rast carried that form into qualifying for the second leg of the DTM’s blue riband event, setting a rapid time of 48.622s in Group A.

The German driver then had to spend the next 20 minutes in the Schubert garage as he waited for the second group of drivers to complete their laptimes, with the DTM having gone for a split-qualifying format at the Norisring due to the short length of the track.

While a number of Porsche drivers showed rapid pace in a session that was supposed to be theoretically faster, no one was able to usurp Rast’s lap, with the 36-year-old clinching his 24th career pole in the DTM by 0.151s.

The closest anyone came to beating Rast was Manthey EMA’s Thomas Prenining, the Porsche driver qualifying on the front row of the grid for a second race in succession after setting a best time of 48.773s.

Saturday winner and reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde finished right behind his team-mate Rast in the first qualifying group with a time that was only 0.018s down, which put him third on the grid ahead of the Bernhard Porsche duo Laurin Heinrich and Ayhancan Guven.

SSR Performance driver Mirko Bortolotti was once again Lamborghini’s best representative as he qualified sixth, beating the second Manthey EMA Porsche of Dennis Olsen.

HRT driver Luca Stolz led Mercedes’ charge in eighth, while Kelvin van der Linde was the best of the Audi runners in ninth. The top 10 was rounded out by SSR Lamborghini’s Franck Perera, the winner of the season opener bouncing back from two difficult qualifying sessions where he could finish no higher than 18th.

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann was 11th in the Project 1 BMW, while Christian Engelhart qualified his Toksport WRT car 12th on the grid ahead of the top Grasser Racing Lamborghini of Clemens Schmid and Abt Audi of Ricardo Feller.

The Emil Frey Ferrari team again endured a woeful qualifying session, with Thierry Vermuelen and Jack Aitken ending up a distant 25th and 26th on the grid, only beating the SSR Lamborghini of Alessio Deledda in the 27-car field.

Group A results:

 Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time  Gap
33  René Rast BMW 48.662  
S.van der Linde BMW 48.680 0.018
24  Ayhancan Guven Porsche 48.727 0.065
90  Dennis Olsen Porsche 48.815 0.153
K.van der Linde Audi 48.882 0.220
11  Marco Wittmann BMW 48.962 0.300
63  Clemens Schmid Lamborghini 49.038 0.376
84  Jusuf Owega Mercedes 49.084 0.422
36  Arjun Maini Mercedes 49.097 0.435
10  Tim Heinemann Porsche 49.189 0.527
11  27  David Schumacher Mercedes 49.203 0.541
12  83  P.Niederhauser Audi 49.442 0.780
13  69  T.Vermeulen Ferrari 49.805 1.143

Group B results:

 Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time  Gap
91  Thomas Preining Porsche 48.773  
75  Laurin Heinrich Porsche 48.869 0.096
92  Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini 48.876 0.103
Luca Stolz Mercedes 48.911 0.138
94  Franck Perera Lamborghini 48.915 0.142
99  C.Engelhart Porsche 48.990 0.217
Ricardo Feller Audi 49.017 0.244
22  Lucas Auer Mercedes 49.019 0.246
48  Maro Engel Mercedes 49.029 0.256
10  Luca Engstler Audi 49.106 0.333
11  40  Mattia Drudi Audi 49.130 0.357
12  19  Mick Wishofer Lamborghini 49.150 0.377
13  14  Jack Aitken Ferrari 49.464 0.691
14  Alessio Deledda Lamborghini 49.758 0.985
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