Marco Wittmann takes pole position at Moscow

BMW driver Marco Wittmann took pole position at the Moscow Raceway in a red flagged session. The red flag was after fellow BMW driver Maxime Martin had an accident against the barriers.

The performance weight advantage helped the Bavarian cars, which took  six of the top eight grid positions.

The session started under cloudy skies but dry track conditions.

Drivers took to the track in the uncertain weather conditions. BMW driver Maxime Martin set the first reference time, which was beaten by Mercedes’ Robert Wickens. Daniel Juncadella then improved to third position, but Marco Wittmann and Tom Blomqvist then moved ahead for BMW.

Audi drivers Jamie Green and Nico Müller went out on their first runs at half session, with the Briton complaining of excessive traffic to his engineers. Green moved up to 18th place whilst Müller was ninth after his first flying lap.

Maxime Martin improved his time to 1:29.07 but on the following lap, the Team RBM driver lost the rear end of his BMW M4 DTM at Turn 9, crashing heavily and sideways against the barriers. The incident brought out the red flag with 8:15 left on the clock. The Belgian was unhurt, but had to be checked at the track’s medical centre, with a question over whether his car could be repaired in time for Race 2.

The session was resumed with a handful of drivers venturing onto the track, most just waiting for the final moments. With two minutes left on the clock, all drivers were out on track.

Mattias Ekström tried to improve his lap time from 16th place, but aborted the attempt to get new tyres. The Swede went out again in his RS 5 DTM, but could only improve to 15th position.

The BMWs came in full force in the final moments, with Marco Wittmann clocking the fastest lap of the session with a time of 1:28.776, with Tom Blomqvist going second, just 0.102 seconds behind.

Championship leader Robert Wickens also improved in the final stages, being the best man of the session for Mercedes AMG in fourth position.

BMW Team MTEK driver Bruno Spengler was fifth, followed by Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella, who completed his best qualifying of the year.

BMW drivers Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock were next in the classification, with Mercedes AMG’s Maximilian Götz and Lucas Auer completing the top 10. The Austrian was 0.874 seconds off the pace.

António Félix Da Costa confirmed the good session for BMW Motorsport with 11th place. Martin Tomczyk struggled again, and could only be 23rd fastest.

Audi Sport however struggled, with Nico Müller the fastest of the Ingolstadt drivers in 13th place, 0.992 seconds off the pace. Title contenders Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green were 18th and 20th fastest respectively, anticipating a tough race for both of them.

Rain is expected at some point during Race 2, which features a compulsory pit stop. The start is scheduled for 13:13 local time.