Marco Wittmann fastest but René Rast takes pole position in Russia

BMW Motorsport driver Marco Wittmann was fastest in qualifying for Race 1 at the Moscow Raceway, however he won’t be starting from pole position as he has a five-place grid-drop penalty hanging over him from the last race at the Norisring, with René Rast therefore securing pole position in Russia.

The lap times fell quickly from the start of the session, with Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller, Mattias Ekström and René Rast and BMW’s Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittmann all taking turns at the other top of the classification. When the drivers had finished their first runs, it was Wittmann who led the classification with a time of 1:27.035.

All drivers returned to the track with six minutes left on the clock for their final runs, with Rast going fastest in the first sector, but a slower second sector meant the German driver could only manage second.

As the chequered flag was waved, Mercedes driver Edoardo Mortara spun off the track at Turn 10, and became stuck in the gravel trap and was unable to improve, with the Italian qualifying in 17th and on the last row of the grid.

Wittmann’s time was unbeaten, with Rast just over a tenth behind. Rockenfeller was third, three-tenths off the pace, followed by the BMWs of Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock.

The Audis of Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green were sixth and seventh, with the Briton just over four-tenths off pole position. BMW driver Tom Blomqvist improved to eighth as the chequered flag was out, also just over four-tenths off the pace.

Gary Paffett was ninth and the only C63 DTM in the top ten after a disastrous qualifying session for Mercedes AMG, with Loïc Duval’s Audi completing the top ten, half a second off the pace and with both drivers separated by just three-thousandths.

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for 15:43 MSK, 14:43 CET.