Photo: DTM Media

René Rast leads Audi top five lockout in second qualifying at Misano

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René Rast topped second qualifying at Misano, with the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer securing the first five positions of the grid in a red-flagged session.

Three minutes into the session, Andrea Dovizioso locked the brakes of his RS 5 DTM, going straight and getting stuck in the gravel trap at Turn 13, with the session stopped with a red flag to recover the car. The marshals pushed the car back onto the track and the Italian returned to the track under his own power.

No driver had set any significant lap times at this point, with the red flag ruining the first run for the entire field. The session was restarted with 16 minutes to go.

BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde and Timo Glock, Audi´s René Rast and R-Motorsport’s Ferdinand Habsburg and Jake Dennis had lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

There were many improvements on drivers’ second runs, with Rast’s time securing his second pole position of the weekend with a time of 1:25.384, beating Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline’s Robin Frijns by just 0.070 seconds.

One to watch throughout the session was WRT’s Jonathan Aberdein, on the verge of breaking onto the front row, but a mistake in the second sector on his final lap caused him to finish only third, two-tenths off the pace.

Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller was fourth, followed by Pietro Fittipaldi in the second Audi from Team Rosberg, 0.275 seconds off the pace.

Yesterday’s winner Marco Wittmann was the fastest BMW driver for Team RMG in sixth position, 0.380 seconds behind Rast, with Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval just three-thousandths further behind.

Dovizioso still managed to qualify in 14th position, with Dennis driving the fastest Aston Martin Vantage DTM in 15th place, 1.4 seconds off the pace.

BMW drivers Joel Eriksson and Philipp Eng, both from Team RBM, and Team RMG’s Timo Glock, completed the top ten.

Rast said after the session: “There is a lot of pressure and a lot of work in the car. The last lap wasn’t very clean but, still, great result, another three points and with Robin and Nico behind me, so it’s looking good.”

The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.