René Rast pips Jamie Green to take his third pole position of the season
Audi Sport Team Rosberg drivers René Rast and Jamie Green dominated Sunday’s qualifying session, with yesterday’s winner beating the Briton by just 0.007 seconds.
It was five minutes into the session when the red flag came out as BMW Team RMG’s Timo Glock stopped on track at Turn 6, and had to be towed away. Glock was automatically excluded from taking any further part in the session.
Up to that point, Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval had pipped up fellow Audi driver at Team Rosberg René Rast by just five-thousandths of a second, with most drivers having their first attempt ruined by the interruption.
The session was restarted with just 14:35 on the clock, with the R-Motorsport drivers the first on the track.
Rast beat Green at the last gasp by just seven-thousandths of a second with a time of 46.146, making it a 1-2 for Team Rosberg.
Audi’s domination continued with Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller in third, followed by Duval. BMW Motorsport Team RBM’s Philipp Eng was the only driver able to break Audi’s domination of the session in fifth, just 0.046 seconds off the pace.
Mike Rockenfeller was sixth for Audi Sport Team Phoenix, with BMW drivers Bruno Spengler and Sheldon van der Linde following. Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann could only manage to finish ninth, 0.368 seconds behind Rast, with Team WRT’s Jonathan Aberdein completing the top ten.
Daniel Juncadella continued his good form at the Norisring as the fastest driver for R-Motorsport, taking his Aston Martin Vantage DTM to 13th place, half a second off the pace.
The session was again very close, with all qualified drivers within eight-tenths off a second. Both Green, Rockenfeller and R-Motorsport’s Jake Dennis are under investigation for not respecting the red flag.
The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.
